Nutrient composition and digestibility of taro leaf in the diets of chicken and effects on the meat quality

In Ethiopia, in highly populated areas where it may be complex to continue agronomic activities, subsistence poultry can be the best alternative form of income resources, plays a significant role in family nutrition and above all, smallholder poultry provide a good opportunity to address poverty alleviation.1 However, scarcity of conventional feedstuffs and food insecurity problems by rapidly increasing population growth are the most aggravating factors at present (FAO, 2014). Most of the population in Ethiopia depends on cereals as stable foods which are also required for poultry feeding.2 This means, it is difficult to use cereals for poultry with having human food insecurity burden and replacing expensive cereals and less available agro-industrial by-products by unconventional source of raw materials, which are less exploited by man, is one of the solutions to reduce cost of production and contribute to increased supply of animal protein to rich of poor people’s.3,4 Diets formulated on a least cost basis are vital and essential. It is generally assumed that improvements in alternative feed resources utilization will be associated with increased rate of productivity and product quality.5 However, in Ethiopia this strategy is not practiced because of the less characterization of nonconventional feed sources from rural areas rather dependent on high costs of conventional feed ingredients (maize, soybean and others), many of are utilized primarily in the human food and industrial input application (FAO 2011). This elevates the prices of the products like egg and chicken meat. Thus, high cost of cereals and protein supplements and uncertainty about their sustainable supply pressed the need to search for other potential non-conventional feed sources which are relatively less used for human consumption.