GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF STARTER TURKEYS FED VARYING DIETARY LEVELS OF TOASTED BAMBARA GROUNDNUT OFFAL MEAL

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1 GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF STARTER TURKEYS FED VARYING DIETARY LEVELS OF TOASTED BAMBARA GROUNDNUT OFFAL MEAL Obua 1*, B. E., Okocha 1, C. N. Ekereuke 2, E. O. and Mbenyi 1, U. 1 Department of Animal Production and Livestock Management, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria. benobua@gmail.com Tel Department of Animal Science, Akwa Ibom State College of Arts and Science, Ikono, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. ABSTRACT A 28 day feeding trial involving seventy-two (72) four week old starter turkey birds was conducted to evaluate the growth performance and economic characteristics of turkey poults fed diets containing varying levels of toasted Bambara groundnut Offal (TBGO) at the starter phase. The poults were assigned to four dietary treatments groups of eighteen birds per treatment with six birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. The birds were fed diets containing varying levels of toasted Bambara groundnut offal at 0%, 7.5%, 15.0% and 22.5% designated as diets,t1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. Diet T1 (0%) was the control diet. The birds were weighed at the beginning of the experiment and weekly thereafter. Experimental diets and water were offered ad libitum. The result of the study showed that TBGO contained18.52% crude protein,4.74% crude fibre, and 4.47% ether extract. The final live weight, average daily gain and revenue of birds fed diets 1, 3 and 4 were significantly higher (P<0.05) than those of birds fed diet 2. Birds fed diets T1, T3 and T4 had significantly higher (P<0.05) final live body weights (949.69g, g, and g, respectively)than birds fed diets T2 (821.08g). The revenue generated from turkeys fed diets T3 (N ), T4 (N ) and T1 (N ) were similar (P>0.05) but higher (P<0.05) than the revenue generated from turkeys fed diet T2 (N ).The birds fed the treatment diets were similar (P>0.05) in average daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio, cost/kg weight gain and gross margin. It could be concluded that toasted Bambara groundnut offal could be incorporated in starter turkey diet up to 22.5% dietary level without adversely affecting their growth performance and economics of production. However, for optimal performance, 15.0 % dietary inclusion level of TBGO is advocated for starter turkeys as it elicited the least cost of feed per kg body weight gain and highest revenue. Keywords: Turkey poults, toasted Bambara groundnut offal, performance INTRODUCTION In the past few decades, there has been tremendous increase in the studies on utilization of Agro-Industrial By- Products (AIBPs) in animal feeds because of the obvious need to conserve grains and legumes seeds for human feeding especially in the developing countries. There is also a growing need to explore the use of alternative feedstuff that is cheaper and locally available/accessible to replace the costly conventional feedstuffs. The use of agro- industrial by-products in feed reduces the cost of feed as they attract little pricing (Onyimonyi, 2003). However, generally, AIBPs contain fibre. Chicken is known for its inability to digest fibre (Alawa and Umunna, 1993). Turkeys may be able to utilize better some of these AIBPs. Earlier, Ukachukwu et al. (2003) had posited that there is also a need to shift emphasis from chicken to other poultry species such as ducks, turkeys, guinea fowl etc. in order to explore their relative position and various contributions to overall development of the poultry industry. One of such readily available agro-industrial by-product in Nigeria is Bambara groundnut offal. Bambara groundnut is a legume of the family of Fabaceae widely grown in Nigeria in the middle belt region and Enugu State of Nigeria. The offal is a waste produced from the milling of Bambara groundnut seed. The development of the offal as an alternative energy and protein source could contribute to solving the problem of high cost of poultry feed and could provide a better avenue for its disposal which may constitute an environmental nuisance. Bambara groundnut offal contains % crude protein, % crude fiber and MJ/kg gross energy (Amaefule and Iroanya, 2004; Onyimonyi and Okeke, 2007). However, anti-nutritional factors such as tannins, protease inhibitors, cyanogenic glycosides, flatulence factors and haemagglutinins have been reported in raw Bambara (Ensminger, 1991; Ensminger et al., 1996). Antinutritional factors and high fiber content are limitations to the use of Bambara groundnut in poultry feeding. Therefore, this calls for a processing method to remove or reduces the levels of anti-nutritional factors which could enhance incorporating Bambara groundnut offal in poultry feed. One of such method which involves heat treatment is toasting. Toasting has been reported to give Bambara groundnut offai a sweet aroma (Onyimonyi and Okeke 2007; Amaefule and Iroanya, 2004), and improving its consumption when incorporated in poultry feed. Bambara groundnut offal has been successfully incorporated at % in broiler rations (Amaefule and Iroanya, 2004; Ekenyem and Onyeagoro, 2006; Obih and Ekenyem, 2010; Ironkwe and Esonu, 2012) replacing proportions of maize and soyabean meal. There is paucity of information on the use of toasted Bambara groundnut offal to feed turkeys. In other to provide valuable information for the assessment and use of toasted Bambara groundnut offal as a feed ingredient in turkey diet, this study was therefore designed to investigate the performance and economic characteristics of starter turkeys fed diets containing varying levels of toasted Bambara groundnut offal meal. NJAFE VOL. 13 No. 4,

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS Experimental site The study was carried out at the Poultry Unit of the Teaching and Research Farm, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria. Umudike falls within the tropical rain forest ecological zone of South eastern Nigeria, located between latitude, and N and longitude and E at height of 122m above the sea level. The climate of the area is characterized by high rainfall of more than 1,900mm per annum and having annual rainfall duration of mostly between the month of April and October and 5 months of dry season that is often accompanied by high relative humidity (60%) especially in the months of the raining season. Mean daily ambient temperature ranged between 27 o Cand 35 o C throughout the year (NRCRI, 2013). Experimental birds, management and design Ninety (90) day old turkey poults were procured from Owerri, Imo state, Nigeria and brooded. The experimental poults were of local strain. The turkey were housed on a deep Iitter and brooded for four weeks before the experiment commenced. The feeders, drinkers and the floor of the pens were cleaned, washed and disinfected with disinfectant. Wood shavings were spread on the floor before the birds were kept on the deep litter. Seventy two (72) four week old turkey poults were selected and weighed such that the poults in a replicate and subsequently in a treatment group had similar average weights. The birds were then allocated to four treatment groups of eighteen (18) birds per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design. Each treatment was replicated three times and each replicate had six birds each. The birds were fed ad-libitum with experimental diets and water during the experimental period of 28 days. Health management practices include administration of anti-stress and intra ocular (i/o) at the first day against Newcastle disease, 10 th day gumboro vaccine was given against gumboro disease and lasota vaccine was given on the 21 st day. Coccidiostat was given to prevent or control coccidiosis. Fowl pox vaccine was also administered at the appropriate time/period. Experimental diet Four treatment diets were formulated to contain four dietary levels of 0, 7.5, 15.0, and 22.5% of toasted Bambara groundnut offal designated as diets T 1, T 2, T 3 and T 4, respectively. Diet T 1 served as the control diet. The composition of the diets is as shown in Table 1. Table 1: Composition of starter turkeys diets containing varying levels of toasted Bambara offal Diets (%) Ingredients T1 T2 T3 T4 Maize Soybean meal Groundnut cake Fish meal Toasted BGO Bone meal Premix* Common salt L Lysine DL Methionine Total Calculated Analysis (%) Crude protein Crude fibre ME (Kcal/kg) Ether extract Methionine (%) Lysine (%) *Vitamin-mineral premix supplied Vitamin A-2,000,000IU; Vitamin D3-400,000IU; Vitamin E-8.00g; VitaminK3-0.40g; Vitamin B1-0.32g; Vitamin B2-0.96g; Vitamin B6-0.56g; Vitamin C-2400mg; Vitamin B12-400mg; Folic acid-0.16g; Biotin-8.00mg; Zinc-7.20g; Copper-0.32g; Iodine-0.25mg; Cobalt-36mg; Selenium-16.00mg; BHT-125g. Toasted BGO =Toasted Bambara groundnut offal. Procurement and processing of ingredients The Bambara groundnut offal was bought from Ubani market, Umuahia Abia state, Nigeria. Maize, soybean meal and other feed stuffs were procured from Jocan Limited, Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. The Bambara groundnut offal was toasted over fire in aluminum pan for about fifteen minutes during which period the material was stirred steadily with wooden stick. The toasted Bambara offal was collected, when it turned a characteristic brownish colour, spread on a clean floor and allowed to cool under prevailing room temperature. It was later packed in a bag for compounding of the experimental diets. NJAFE VOL. 13 No. 4,

3 Data collection Parameters measured were weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Initial weights of poults were determined by weighing them individually after four of weeks brooding when the experiment commenced. Feed conversion ratio was determined as feed intake divided by weight gain. Economic characteristics parameters were calculated using the method reported by Sonaiya et al. (1986). It involves, cost per kg of feed = total cost of producing 100kg of feed per 100. Cost of feed consumed (N) = cost per kg of feed x total feed intake, cost per kg weight gain = FCR x cost kg of feed. Revenue (N) = price per kg meat x average live weight of bird while Gross margin = revenue cost per kg weight gain x weight of bird. Proximate and statistical analysis The proximate composition of the Bambara groundnut offal and the experimental diets: dry matter (DM), crude protein (CF), crude fibre (CF), ether extract, ash and nitrogen free extract (NFE) were determined according to AOAC (1990). The data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) as described by Steel and Torrie (1980). Differences between treatment means were separated using Duncan s New multiple Range Test (Duncan, 1955). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The proximate composition of toasted Bambara groundnut offal is shown in Table 2 while the proximate composition of the diets containing varying levels of toasted Bambara groundnut offal (TBGO) is shown in Table 3. In this study, the toasted Bambara groundnut offal contained a dry matter of 88.68%, crude protein (CP), 18.52%; crude fibre, 4.74%; ether extract, 4.47%; ash, 4.83%; and nitrogen free extract, 56.17%, the crude protein value of toasted Bambara was18.52%. Table 2: The proximate composition of toasted Bambara groundnut offal meal Proximate Percentage composition (%) Dry matter Crude protein Crude fiber 4.74 Ether extract 4.47 Ash 4.83 Nitrogen- free extract Table 3: Proximate composition of starter turkey diets containing varying levels of toasted Bambara groundnut offal Parameters T1 T2 T3 T4 Dry matter Ash Crude protein Crude fiber Ether extract Nitrogen- free extract groundnut offal (TBGO) was lower than crude protein values of and 19.75% reported by Ironkwe and Esonu (2012) and Amaefule and Iroanya (2004) but higher than CP values of 17.40%, 17.90% and 17.0 %reported by Onyimonyi and Ugwu (2007), Amaefule and Osuagwu (2005) and Onyimonyi and Onukwufor (2003), respectively. This could probably be attributed to loss of some protein during processing and also due to the different varieties of Bambara groundnut seeds used for the study (Amaefule and Iroanya 2004).The crude fibre value of 4.74% is similar to the value of 4.88% reported by Akande et al.(2009), but lower than the value 6.43% and % obtained by Ukpabi et al. (2008) and Onyimonyi and Ugwu (2007), respectively. The ether extract (EE) 4.47% and nitrogen free extract (NFE) 56.17% values were within the range reported by Onyimonyi and Ugwu (2007). The nitrogen free extract value recorded in this study is in agreement with the values of % and to 56.12% reported by Okah et al. (2006) and Onyimonyi and Ugwu (2007), respectively for heat treated BGO. The differences in proximate composition could be attributed to differences in variety, processing (extent of sieving to obtain the flour for human consumption) and method of toasting. Differences in the proximate compositions of legumes and oil seeds have been attributed to differences in the varieties of seeds used (Amaefule and Obioha, 1998; Ani and Okorie, 2006). According to NRC (1994), the proximate composition of plant feedstuffs can vary due to various factors such as crop variety, processing methods and soil conditions. In this study the Bambara groundnut offal was obtained from cream coloured Bambara groundnut seed variety. Growth Performance and economic characteristics of turkey poults The growth performance indices of starter turkey poults fed diets containing varying levels of toasted Bambara groundnut offal is as shown in Table 4. Results showed that the turkey poults fed diets T 1, T 3 and T 4 had significantly (p<0.05) higher final live body weights (949.69g, g, and g) and average daily gain ( g, 25.75gand g, respectively), than birds fed diets T 2 ( g; g). However, the final live weight and average daily gain of starter turkeys fed diets T 1, T 3 and T 4 were similar (P>0.05).The significantly (P<0.05) higher average daily weight gain and consequent higher final live weight of the turkeys fed diet T 3 than the poults fed the control diet could be ascribed to improved nutrient availability which manifested in improved growth rate. The average daily gain of birds fed diet T 1, T 3 and T 4 were similar (P>0.05) but were relatively better than birds fed diet T2. This shows that the birds fed diet T 1, T 3 and T 4 were made more efficient use of the nutrients in the diets than the birds fed diet T 2. This is in disagreement with the findings of Ironkwe and Esonu NJAFE VOL. 13 No. 4,

4 (2012), that toasting Bambara groundnut offal reduced the average weight gain of broiler finisher birds as a result of denaturing of the protein content of Bambara groundnut offal due to heat treatment. In this study, the Bambara offal was probably toasted properly without denaturing the protein of the offal resulting in better conversion of the Bambara groundnut offal meal diets into body weight except for birds fed diet T 2. In broilers, 25% of soybean meal has been replaced with potash boiled Bambara groundnut seed with improved performance (Nwambe et al., 2008).Several workers have reported improved live weight of turkeys fed various agro-industrial by-products replacing proportions of maize or soybean meal (Ukachukwu, et al., 2003; Ugwuene, 2008; Malik et al., 2014). The revenue generated differed significantly (P<0.05) and ranged from N for birds fed diet T 2 to N for birds fed diet T 3(Table 5). The revenue generated from turkeys fed diet T 3 (N ), diet T 4 (N ) and diet T 1 (N ) were similar (P>0.05) but higher (P<0.05) than the revenue generated from turkeys fed diet T 2 (N ). This may be due to the inclusion level of toasted Bambara groundnut offal, which reduced cost of production and improved profit margin and general financial gain as the inclusion of toasted Bambara groundnut offal increased up to 22.5%, but was optimum at 15.0% inclusion level. This implies that it is cheaper to produce a kilogramme of turkey meat when toasted Bambara groundnut offal meal was incorporated up to 15 to 22.5% in turkey poult diets. This could be due to the relatively cheaper Table 4: Performance of starter turkey fed diets containing varying levels of toasted Bambara groundnut offal meal Parameters T1 T2 T3 T4 SEM Initial body weight (g) Final body weight (g) a b a a Av. daily weight gain (g) 25.06a 20.87b 25.75a 24.76a 1.44 Av. daily feed intake (g) Feed conversion ratio (g) Mortality (%) a,b Means across rows with different superscripts differ significantly at p<0.05. unit cost of Bambara groundnut offal which replaced proportions of costlier soybean meal and maize in the diets. Several researchers have made similar observation in broilers and turkeys fed non-conventional feed resources replacing proportions of costlier conventional feed sources (Ukachukwu et al., 2003; Ekenyem and Onyeagoro, 2006; Nwambe et al., 2008; Ugwuene, 2008; Obua and Okoye, 2014; Malik et al., 2014). The birds however did not differ significantly (p>0.05) among treatment groups in average daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio, cost/kg weight gain, total feed intake and gross margin. Birds fed diets T 1, T 2, T 3, andt 4 had average daily feed intake values of 60.04g, 57.96g, 64.23g and 48.63g, respectively. This means that any difference in the performance of the experimental birds was not as a result of differences in the quantity of feed consumed in the respective diets. The average daily feed intake values obtained in diets containing varying levels of Bambara groundnut offal diets may be partly due to the inclusion level and also improvement in palatability and aroma due to toasting of the offal (Onyimonyi and Okeke, 2007). The removal or reduction of some of the anti-nutritional factors in the offal to bare residual level as a result of toasting (Liener, 1990), may have contributed to improved and optimal intake of the birds fed toasted Bambara groundnut offal meal diets up to 15% level. The feed intake may have also been affected by the level of fibre in the diets containing Bambara offal beyond 15% level of incorporation. Kperegbeyi and Onwumere (2007) had reported that for efficient growth rate in broilers and other monogastric animals, feed intake must correspondingly increase to meet up with the anticipated growth rate of animals. The poults may have been balancing the effect of high fibre and improved palatability and aroma of the diets. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) was not significantly influenced (P>0.05) by increase in dietary level of toasted Bambara groundnut offal, although there was an improvement at 22.5% inclusion level. The feed conversion ratio values were 2.40, 2.47, 2.48 and 1.96 for birds fed diets T 1, T 2, T 3 and T 4, respectively. Birds fed diet T 4 were the most efficient converters among the treatment groups. In this study, heat treatment may have removed some of the anti- nutritional factors especially the ones that are heat labile to low levels (Liener, 1990), enabling improvement in feed conversion ratio. Nwambe et al. (2008) had made similar observations in broilers fed potash boiled Bambara groundnut offal. Toasting of Bambara groundnut have been reported to improve FCR in broilers (Ironkwe and Esonu, 2012). Feed conversion ratio is the expression of the quantity of feed consumed to obtain a unit of product. The cost per kg feed for treatments T 1, T 2, T 3and T 4 were N160.24, 154.6, and N149.21, respectively. The cost per kg of feed and cost per kg of weight gain were lowest in diet 4 followed by diets T 3, T 2, T 1 in that order. Moreover, the lower cost per kilogramme of toasted Bambara groundnut offal compared to maize and soybean meal suggests that the use of toasted Bambara groundnut offal up to 15.0 % % level, to replace proportions of maize and soybean meal, would be economical and cost effective. The cost of feed consumed to obtain a unit of products should therefore form a basis for recommending feed to farmers (Ukachukwu and Anugwa, 1995).The cost of feed consumed were similar (p>0.05) among the treatment NJAFE VOL. 13 No. 4,

5 groups. The non-significant differences observed in the cost of feed consumed could be as a result of similarity in the cost of a kilogramme of the diets rather than the quantity of feed consumed since the later did not differ significantly among treatments. However, it is pertinent to state that cost of feed consumed by turkeys fed diet 4 Table 5: Economic characteristics of starter turkeys fed varying dietary levels of toasted Bambara groundnut offal meal Diets Parameters T1 T 2 T 3 T 4 SEM Cost \kg weight gain (N) Total feed intake (g) Revenue (N) a b a a Gross margin (N ) Cost/kg of feed (N) Cost of feed consumed (N) a,b Means across rows with different superscripts differ significantly at p<0.05. was the least while the highest cost of feed consumed was obtained in birds fed diet 1.The gross margin was similar (p>0.05) among the treatment groups. The gross margin values ranged from N for turkeys fed diet 2 to N for birds fed diet 4 (Table 3). The turkeys fed diet 4 had the highest gross margin values of N followed by those fed diet 3 (N524.51). The higher gross margin values for birds fed diets 3 and 4 suggests that it is more economical to raise turkey poults with diets containing toasted Bambara groundnut offal incorporated at 22.5% dietary level. The cost per kg weight gain were similar (p>0.05) among the treatment groups. The feed cost/kg of unit gain of birds fed diett 1 (N385.08), diet T 2 (N382.37) and diet T 3 (N380.18) were not significantly (p>0.05) different from birds fed diet T 4 (N293.14). The feed cost/kg weight gain values portrays considerable reduction in the cost of feeding turkeys at higher inclusion levels of incorporation of toasted Bambara groundnut offal into the diets thereby achieving the objective to produce turkey at cheaper and affordable cost. The diets T 3 and T 4 which encouraged the best biological performance gave the least cost per kg weight gain and also resulted to the highest gross margins from the sale of poults. Ukachukwu et al. (2003) had made similar observation when poults were fed diets containing agro-industrial by-products replacing costlier maize. The findings of this study are also in agreement with the report of Ekenyem and Onyeagoro (2006) that the increase in percentage inclusion of toasted Bambara groundnut offal reduced the cost of production of broiler birds. Hence, it can be suggested that toasted Bambara groundnut offal can be incorporated at 22.5% dietary level replacing proportions of groundnut cake and maize with no detrimental effect on daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio and cost per kg weight gain. Generally, the diet incorporated up to 22.5% dietary level of toasted Bambara groundnut offal was better when both economic and biological performances of turkey poults were considered. However, for optimum performance, 15.0 dietary level inclusions is advocated for starter turkeys. CONCLUSION Toasted Bambara groundnut offal could be incorporated in starter turkey diet up to 22.5% dietary level without adversely affecting growth performance and economic characteristics of starter turkeys. REFERENCES Akande, K. E., Abubakar, M. M., Adegbola, T. A., Bogoro, S. E., Doma, U. D. and Fabiyi, E. F Nutrient composition and uses of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdcourt).Continental Journal of Food Science and Technology 3: Alawa, J. P and Umunna, N. N Alternative feed formation developing countries; prospects of utilization of agro-industrial by products Journal of Animal Production Research 13 (2): Ani, A. O. and Okorie, A. U The efficacy of two-stage cooking as a method of detoxifying castor oil bean (Ricinus communis L) meal for livestock feeding. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment 8(1): Amaefule, K. U. and Obioha, F. C The substitution of pigeon pea (C. cajan) for groundnut and maize in broiler finisher ration. Nigerian Journal of Animal Production 25(1):9-12. Amaefule, K. U. and Osuagwu, F. M Performance of pullet chicks fed raw Bambaragroundnut (Vigna subterranean (L) Maize. Livestock. Research for Rural Development Vol.17, Amaefule, K. U. and Iroanya, C. O Replacement of soya bean meal and maize offal with Bambara groundnut offal in broiler diets. Nigerian Agricultural Journal, 35: AOAC Association of Official Analytical Chemists. Official methods of analysis 15 th Edition Washington, D.C., U.S.A. pp Duncan, D. B Multiple range and multiple F-.Test Biometrics11: NJAFE VOL. 13 No. 4,

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