Preference of Broiler Chicken for Cassava-Moringa Based Diet

Abstract

The poultry industry is under pressure from the rising cost of imported feed ingredients. In order for the industry to be profitable and sustainable, it has to reduce the cost of production by using locally available feedstuff. A study was carried out to evaluate feed preference of broiler chicken for cassava root chip, for three diets made by mixing different proportion in percentage of cassava root chip and ground Moringa leaf (90:10, 80:20, 70:30) and compare it to the preference for commercial starter diet. These diets were offered as free choice to five 20-days old chicken, one at a time over a period of five days. The three feed preference criteria assessed were (i) the visiting frequency to each diet station, (ii) time spent feed at each diet station, and (iii) amount of different treatment diet consumed. The hypothesis is that the preferred food will be visited more often; the chicken will spend longer time feeding on it and therefore consume it more. We found that broiler chicken consumed cassava root chip the least (2 g), visited it less often (9 visits) and spent less time (3.5 minutes) feeding on it. In contrast, feed consumption (6.12 g) and time spent (17 minutes) was highest for mixed diet containing 80% cassava and 20% Moringa leaf meal. Visiting frequency was highest for commercial starter diet (29 visits) and second highest (24 visits) for mixed diet of 80% cassava: 20% Moringa and 70% cassava: 30% Moringa. It is concluded that broiler chicken preferred the diet containing 80% cassava root chip and 20% Moringa leaf meal among all diets on offer.