Performance of broiler chickens fed variously processed African yam bean

The performance of broiler chickens fed variously processed African yam bean was investigated using 150 broiler chickens. They were allotted into five dietary treatments having 3 replicates and 10 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design experiment. Five iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous diets were formulated. Diet one was soy bean based (control) while diets 2, 3, 4 and 5 contained variously processed AYB (boiled, Toasted, Dehulled after toasted and Cracked and boiled) AYB meal at 5%. At the end of experiment, 2 birds per replicate were used for carcass characteristics and organ weights (expressed as percentage dressed weight).The growth performance showed no significant (P>0.05) difference among treatment means except for mean total and daily feed intake and mortality. The dressing percentage values fall within the normal range for all treatments except diet 4. Cut parts (PDW) favoured diet 4. The feed cost analysis favoured diet 2 with N224.48 cost/kg gain as opposed to others (T1 N 227.42, T3 N 233.59, T4 N 226.50 and T5 N 246.25). Considering the growth performance, mortality, carcass characteristics, and cost per kilogram weight gain of meat, diet 2 (5% boiled AYB) performed better than the other test diets and compared favourably with the control diet. Boiled AYB is therefore recommended.