Effects of Amaranthus spinosus (green) leaf meal on the performance of broiler chicks.

A twenty eight -day feeding trial was conducted with one hundred and twenty 7-day old Anak 2000 broiler chicks to study the effects of green leaf (Amaranthus spinosus) as a dietary energy source. Amaranthus spinosus leaves dried and ground were used to each replace wheat offal in the following dietary levels: 0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10% respectively. The chicks were divided into five treatment groups, each group replicated four times at the rate of five chicks per replicate. The performance and organ weight characteristics were evaluated.  Amaranthus spinosus leaf meals improved the mean feed intake, body weight gain and live weight of broilers. The performance of broilers in the Amaranthus spinosus leaf meal based diets was inferior to the control. Amaranthus spinosus caused significant proportionate growth in % daily weight (p < 0.05) and carcass evaluation (p < 0.05). Utilization of Amaranthus spinosus significantly increased (p < 0.05) the % live weight of the abdominal fat thus improving the nutritive value of the meat.