The effect of replacement of fishmeal with feather meal on the performance of broiler chickens

Abstract

Increasing the inclusion of feather meal in diets in the near future is desirable in step with the growth of poultry production since it offers a better environmental and nutritional alternative to current methods. An experiment was conducted in the period from 25.02.2016 to 07.04.2016 at the State Agrarian University of Moldova using the COBB 500 hybrids of broiler chickens to evaluate the effect of replacement of fishmeal with feather meal on the diets of broiler chickens raised from one day old to 7 weeks of age. We evaluated the effects of the inclusion of feather meal in the feed on the performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. The treatments consisted of a control diet and four diets with inclusion of feather meal (obtained by fermentation and extrusion) at 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5% levels. Feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, body weight and carcass yield were the variables that were analized. Feed intake was affected by the quantities of feather meal added to the feed. The weight gain, feed conversion and carcass yield presented quadratic responses to the treatments. The performance of the chickens, and carcass characteristics were maximized (the greatest improvement achieved in the slaughter yield) by the inclusion of feather meal 2.5% in EG2. The results of this experiment showed that up to 2.5% of extruded feather meal can be successfully included as protein source in the diets for broiler chickens.