Evaluation of refused tea as an alternative litter material to paddy husk: effects on broiler performance their behaviour, litter properties and ammonia emission

The availability of paddy husk (PH) as a litter material for poultry production is decreasing. The objective of the present study was to determine the suitability of refused tea (RT), a waste generated during the processing of green leaves into black tea, as alternative litter material. Three experiments using completely randomized design were conducted for PH and RT each alone or as mixtures to determine the effects of the type of litter material on growth performance, behaviour of broilers, litter characteristics, and litter ammonia emission. In experiment one, 300 male broilers (Cobb–500) chicks were raised from day 5 to 21 on ten-floor pens (1.5m2), each provided with either PH or RT as the litter material. Five and three PH and RT mixtures (v/v) were used in experiment two and three, respectively to raise broilers (n=300 in each experiment) from day 21 to 42. The type of litter material had no significant effect (P>0.05) on growth performances, hock burn damage score, bird’s cleanliness score and dressing percentage. Compared to PH, RT litter reported a significantly (P<0.05) higher bulk density, N content and caked surface area and tend to have a higher moisture level (p<0.10). Compared to PH alone, RT alone or 1:1 PH:RT litter reduced the emission of ammonia by 53.6 and 34%, respectively. Percentage time spent on foraging was significantly (P<0.05) higher on PH than on RT. The time spent on and the frequency of inter-bird interactions were significantly (P<0.05) higher among the birds raised on RT, compared to those kept on PH. The study concluded that RT can be used as an alternative litter material for broilers. Other advantages of RT litter were the lower ammonia emission and higher litter N contents. Higher litter moisture content and incidence of caking were the disadvantages of RT as litter material.