Response of broiler chickens to raw, heat-treated and heat-treated dehulled sweet lupin seed (Lupins angustifolius) meals on feed intake, growth and carcass performances

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of the partial substitution of soybean meal with raw and processed lupin seed (Lupinus angustifolius) meals on growth and carcass performances of Cobb 500 broiler chickens. Two hundred unsexed day-old chicks with similar body weight were randomly assigned to four treatment diets in completely randomized design with 5 replicates. The four dietary treatments diets were 0 % lupin seed meal (T1), 15 % raw lupin seed meal (RLS, T2), 15 % heat-treated dehulled lupin seed meal (HDLS, T3) and 15 % heat-treated lupin seed meal (HLS, T4). The CP content of RLS, HDLS, and HLS were 33.5, 37.1, and 35.4 %, respectively. The highest total and daily feed intake was observed in chickens reared in control diet (T1) while the lowest from T2 and T4 diets and differed (p<0.05) with the T1 diet. However, no significance effect was observed in feed conversion ratio among the treatment diets. Chickens fed with T1 diet had higher (p<0.05) final body weight, total and daily weight gains than those reared in T2 and T4 diets while these values were comparable to those fed on T3 diet. Similarly, higher (p<0.05) values were observed for slaughter weight, dressed carcass weight, drumsticks, keel bone meat, wings, neck and back and thorax in chickens fed with T1 diet than those of T2 and T4 diets; but these values did not differ with chickens fed on the T3 diet. The gizzard weight was similar between chickens fed with T1 and T3 diets while those on T2 and T4 diets had lower (p<0.05) values than those of T1 diet. The highest liver weight was observed in T1 diet while the lowest in T2 and differed (p<0.05). In conclusion it would be economically beneficial to replace 15 % of the soybean meal with heat-treated dehulled blue lupin seed meal in broilers ration under tropical environment