An experiment was conducted to study the effect of inclusion of different concentrations (0, 100, 200, and 300 g/kg) of raw kidney bean and extruded kidney bean in broiler chick (0 to 21 d of age) diets on performance, digestive organ sizes, protein and amino acid digestibilities, intestinal viscosity, cecal pH, and blood parameters. Data were analyzed as a 3 x 2 factorial arrangement with 3 levels of kidney bean with and without extrusion. Positive control without kidney bean was used. Increasing the kidney bean content in the diet reduced weight gain and consumption, and increased the feed-to-gain ratio. Relative pancreas, liver, and jejunum weights, and intestinal viscosity were increased in response to increasing kidney bean concentration in the diet. The inclusion of different concentrations of kidney bean did not affect the apparent ileal digestibility of essential and nonessential amino acids, except for Met, Phe, and Cys, which were increased. Increasing kidney bean in the diet did not affect blood parameters, except for total protein, which was increased, and for androstenedione and testosterone, which were reduced. Extrusion significantly improved weight gain, feed consumption, and feed conversion. Relative pancreas, liver, and jejunum weights were reduced and spleen weight, cecal and intestinal viscosity were increased by extrusion. Apparent ileal digestibility of crude protein and all essential and nonessential amino acids were improved by extrusion. Like-wise, extrusion increased significantly the concentrations of cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, and testosterone. We concluded that the inclusion of kidney bean in chicken diets cause a negative effect on performance and CP and amino acid digestibilities, and modified digestive organ sizes, intestinal viscosity, cecal pH, and some blood parameters. These effects were counteracted by the extrusion of kidney bean. However, the inclusion of extruded kidney bean in a chick diet resulted in poorer performance compared with that obtained with a corn-soybean diet.
