ABSTRACT
A 84-day feeding trial involving one hundred and five (105) day old indigenous turkey poults was conducted to evaluate the performance of turkeys fed varying dietary levels of palm kernel meal (PKM) at starter and grower phases. Four-week old poults were selected, weighed and assigned to five treatment groups of twenty-one (21) poults per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design. Each treatment was replicated three times with seven birds per replicate. Five(5) diets containing varying levels of palm kernel meal at 0%, 7.5%, 15.0%, 22.5% and 30% designated as diets T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 were formulated for both starter (5-9 weeks) and grower (9-16 weeks) turkeys, respectively. Feed and water were given ad libitum. In experiment 1 (starter phase), the birds fed diet T4 had significantly (P<0.05) higher final body weight among treatment groups. The average daily feed intake of birds fed T5 were significantly (P<0.05) higher than the other treatment groups. The average daily weight gain (ADWG) of poults fed diet T3 and T4 were similar (P>0.05) and significantly (P<0.05) higher than the ADWG of birds fed the other treatment diets. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) values were significantly higher (P<0.05) in birds fed diet T5 than the birds fed diets T1, T2, T3 and T4. On economic characteristics of turkey starter, feed cost per bird in T5 was similar (P>0.05) to T4 but significantly (P<0.05) higher than diets T1, T2, and T3. Birds fed T5 (N532.94) had significantly higher (P<0.05) cost per kg weight gain than birds fed diets T3 (N468.42) and T4 (N460.65).The revenue and the gross margin were significantly (P<0.05) higher in turkey starter fed diet T4. In experiment 2 (grower phase), the final body weight of turkey grower were significantly (P<0.05) higher in birds fed diets T3 than birds fed diet T5. The average daily feed intake (ADFI) of birds fed diet T5 was significantly (P<0.05) higher than other treatments groups. The FCR of birds fed diets T5 was significantly higher (P<0.05) than those fed diets T4, T2, T1 and T3 respectively. Cut parts values did not differ significantly (P>0.05) among treatments except for the breast and wings. All the blood profile parameters measured were within the normal range for healthy turkeys except total protein. Sensory evaluation of turkey meat showed non-significant differences (P>0.05) among treatment groups. On economics of production of turkey grower, feed cost per bird were significantly (P<0.05) higher in T1 and T2 than other treatment diets. Birds fed diets T3 and T4 had non-significantly lower cost per kg weight gain than those fed the other diets. The highest revenue and gross margin were generated from turkeys fed diets T4 and T3. The result of this study suggests that palm kernel meal could be incorporated at 22.5% and a range of 15.0-22.5% in turkey starter and growers diet respectively, without affecting their growth performance, blood profile, economic, carcass characteristics and sensory attributes of turkey meat.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Title
Page i
Declaration
ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Table
of Contents vi
List
of Tables vii
Abstract viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 General Overview 1
1.2 Statement of Problem 3
1.3 Objective of the Study 4
1.3.1 Broad objective 4
1.3.2 Specific objectives 4
1.4 Justification of the Study 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 Turkeys as Animal Protein Source 6
2.2 Nutrient Requirement of Turkey 7
2.2.1 Energy requirement 7
2.2.2 Protein and amino acid requirement 9
2.2.3 Fibre Tolerance of turkeys 12
2.2.4 Water intake 13
2.3 The Importance of Agro Industrial
by-Products in Monogastric Feeding 13
2.4 Palm Kernel Meal and its Processing 15
2.4.1 Protein and amino acids of palm kernel meal 16
2.4.2 Carbohydrates and energy 17
2.4.3.
Toxic factors in palm kernel meal/cake 18
2.4.4 Feeding values of palm kernel meal 18
2.5 Carcass and Organ Characteristics of Turkeys 23
2.6 Haematological and Serum Biochemical
Profile of Turkeys 26
2.7 Sensory Characteristics of Meat 30
CHAPTER 3: MATERIALS AND METHODS
3.1 Experimental Location 33
3.2 Experimental Birds and Management 33
3.3 Experimental Procedure 34
3.4 Experimental Design 39
3.5 Data Collection 39
3.5.1 Growth performance parameters 40
3.5.2 Carcass characteristics and organ proportion 40
3.5.3 Haematological parameters 41
3.5.4 Serum chemistry indices 42
3.5.5 Sensory evaluation 42
3.6 Proximate Analysis 43
3.7 Economic Characteristics of Production 44
3.8 Statistical Analysis 44
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1
Proximate Composition of Pkm and the
Experimental Diets 46
4.5 Growth Performance 51
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusion 87
5.2 Recommendations 87
REFERENCES 88
APPENDIX 102
LIST OF TABLES
3.1: Composition
of experimental diets for turkey poults (0-4 weeks) 35
3.2: Composition
of experimental diets for starter turkey poults
(5-9
weeks) 36
3.3: Composition
of experimental diets for grower turkeys (9-12 weeks) 37
3.4: Composition
of experimental diets for grower turkeys (12-16 weeks) 38
4.1: Proximate
composition of palm kernel meal 47
4.2: Proximate composition of starter turkey
poults (0-9weeks) diets
containing
varying dietary levels of palm kernel meal 48
4.3: Proximate composition of grower turkey
(9-12 weeks) diets containing
varying levels of palm kernel meal 49
4.4: Proximate composition of grower turkey
(12-16 weeks) diets containing
varying levels of palm kernel meal 50
4.5 Performance
of starter turkey fed diet containing varying dietary levels
of
palm kernel meal (5-9 weeks) 53
4.6: Economics
of production of starter turkeys fed diet containing
varying
dietary levels of palm kernel meal (5-9 weeks) 57
4.7: Performance
of grower turkey fed diet containing varying dietary
levels
of palm kernel meal (9-`16 weeks) 61
4.8: Cut parts (expressed as % live weight) of
turkeys fed varying dietary
level
of palm kernel meal (16 weeks) 65
4.9: Internal
organ weight (expressed as % live weight) of turkeys fed
varying
dietary levels of palm kernel meal (16 weeks) 67
4.10: Haematological
indices of turkeys fed varying dietary levels of palm
kernel
meal (16 weeks) 71
4.10.1: Haematological reference table for
turkeys. 73
4.11: Serum
chemistry of turkeys fed varying dietary level of palm kernel
meal
(16 weeks) 77
4.11.1: Serum biochemistry reference table for
turkeys. 79
4.12: Sensory evaluation indices of turkeys fed
varying dietary level of
palm
kernel meal. 82
4.13: Economics
of production of grower turkeys fed varying dietary levels
of
palm kernel meal (9-16 weeks) 84
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 GENERAL OVERVIEW
In
any nation, livestock has always remained significant in agricultural
development and growing economy. Feeds and feeding account for about 60-80
percent of total farm overhead cost depending on the nature of livestock
enterprise (Oladokun et al., 2016).
The prospect of livestock feeding based on grain diet is becoming a threat to
livestock most especially for monogastric animals due to high cost. An effort
made by researchers several years back to overcome such challenge is to
substitute with feed ingredients that are directly or indirectly competing with
humans (Boateng et al., 2013) such as
Agro-Industrial By-Products (AIBPs). Palm kernel meal is one of such AIBPs
which can be incorporated in the diet potentially to reduce the cost of
feeding.
Palm kernel meal is an AIPB obtained after extraction
of oil from palm kernel and it is abundantly available in many tropical
countries like Nigeria (Shakila et al.,
2012). According to Sundu et al. (2006), palm kernel meal (PKM) is
afflatoxin free, palatable and has considered potential as carbohydrate and
protein sources. Palm Kernel meal contains 94% Dry matter (Sue, 2001), 14-21%
Crude protein (Sundu et al., 2006), 21-23%
crude fibre, 8-17% Ether extract, 3—6% Ash (Sue, 2001; Sundu et al., 2005c) and 4998kcal/kg Energy (Sue, 2001). Amaefule et al. (2006) reported values of 20.53% crude protein, 16.25% crude
fibre, 4.30% ash and 6.15% ether extract for PKM.
Sundu et al. (2004a) recommended 40% Palm
kernel meal in broilers diet when methionine and lysine were added. Ugwuene
(2008) successfully fed 34.8% palm kernel meal to growing-finishing turkeys.
Fadil et al. (2014) while
substituting palm kernel meal for corn-soya
recommended 15% in Muscovy duck diet. The body weight of birds fed 30%
PKM diet increased by 2% over the body weight of birds fed a corn-soya diet. A
slight reduction in the body weight of birds was found when 40% PKM was
included but this decrease was not significant (Sundu et al., 2005a and Okeudo et
al., 2006). Obua (2018) found that 20% levels of palm kernel meal can be
fed to broiler chicks. Radim et al. (2000)
recommended 20% and 25% PKM in broilers and layers diets, respectively.
Oladokun et al.
(2016) reported that higher inclusion level of PKM is restricted in poultry diet
due to high shell, fibre and non-starchy polysaccharides (NSPs). Ojewola et al. (2001) reported that broiler
industry in Nigeria has suffered terrible set back in recent years due to
abandonment of large scale farms by their owners resulting in mass importation
of frozen chicken and turkey parts into the country. Effort therefore should be
geared towards exploiting the genetic potentials available in other avian
species such as turkeys, guinea fowl, duck, geese, quail etc.
The
population of turkey in Nigeria is estimated to be 1.05 million (FAO, 2011).The
production of turkey in Nigeria should be encouraged taking
advantage of its body size, fast growth rate, high fecundity, excellent meat
quality, more efficient than broiler in
converting dietary protein to carcass
protein (Summers et al., 1985) and
better utilization of high fibre for biological and economic returns (Ukachukwu
et al., 2003).Turkey production in Nigeria has remained at subsistent level due to the fact
that much attention has been given to chicken, dearth of adequate information
on the nutrient requirements of indigenous turkeys (Ugwuene and Onunkwo, 2016),
high cost of feed and inconsistent
feeding programme (Ojewola et al.,
2003). Since commercial feed millers in the country do not produce turkey
ration, small holders’ turkey farmers feed their birds on broiler rations which
do not meet the nutrient requirement of turkeys.
Ugwuene
(2008) evaluated the effect of replacing dietary maize with full fat palm
kernel meal on growing -finishing turkeys and reported that about 60% of maize
could be replaced in turkey diets, equivalent to 34.8% of inclusion level of
PKM.
There is paucity of information on
the use of palm kernel meal to feed turkeys. In order to provide valuable
information for the assessment and use of palm kernel meal as a feed ingredient
in turkey diet, this study is therefore designed to investigate the performance
of starter and grower turkeys fed diets containing varying levels of palm
kernel meal replacing proportions of
maize and groundnut cake.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
An
increase in the production of palm kernel meal coupled with the concern for
continued availability of conventional feedstuff in Nigeria has led to research
into the use of PKM in animal feeding. Information in literature indicate that
PKM has no anti-nutritional properties and thus its inclusion is safe up to 30%
to 40% in the diet of broilers provided the diet is balanced in amino-acid and
metabolisable energy. However, there is need to determine the effect of varying
dietary levels of PKM in the diet of turkeys.
Therefore,
the evaluation of turkeys fed varying dietary levels of palm kernel meal will
give information on the optimum inclusion level for growth and other
performance traits in starter and growing stage. This will contribute to
reducing the cost of feeding turkey, resulting in overall reduction in cost of
producing turkey, healthier turkeys and turkey meat.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1.3.1 Broad objective
The
broad objective of the study is to determine the performance of starter and
grower turkeys fed varying dietary levels of palm kernel meal.
1.3.2 Specific objectives
The
specific objectives of the study are to determine
i.
The dietary level of
inclusion of palm kernel meal that would enhance growth performance of starter
and grower turkeys.
ii.
The haematological and
biochemical indices of grower turkeys fed diets containing varying dietary
level of palm kernel meal.
iii.
The carcass
characteristics and organ weight of turkeys fed diets containing varying levels
of palm kernel meal.
iv.
The economic
characteristics of production of feeding diets containing varying levels of PKM
to starter and grower turkey.
v.
The sensory attribute of
turkey (meat) fed varying level of palm kernel meal.
1.4 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Turkey
production in Nigeria has remained at subsistent level due to dearth of
information on their nutrient requirements. Palm kernel meal is relatively
cheap, available, under-utilized and not competed for by man and industries, and
contains high crude fibre which limits its usage in poultry feeding. However,
there is a need to take advantage of this rich protein/energy concentrate of
17-21% CP and 2.88Kcal/kg metabolisable energy (ME) depending on the residual
oil and the method of processing in feeding turkeys. PKM has been incorporated
in turkey diets replacing 60% of the maize but this study would strive to
replace a proportion of the major energy and protein sources in turkey diets.
This would help to determine the proportion of maize and groundnut cake or
soybean meal that could be replaced with PKM without adversely affecting the
performance of turkey poults. Determining this level could in turn help to
produce healthy turkeys cheaply, produce quality turkey meat and ensure optimum
economic returns to turkey farmers.
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