RESPONSE OF BROILER BIRDS TO DIETS CONTAINING GRADED LEVELS OF RICE MILLING WASTE AND SUPPLEMENTARY YEAST

Thesis Abstract

Eighty day-old broiler chicks were used for feeding trial carried out to determinethe effect of graded levels of Rice Milling Waste (RMW) and Bioactive Yeast(Saccharomyces cerevisae) which has been shown to secrete enzymes that help todigest crude fiber and organic matter.importance of forest to people in the study area. The linear regression analysis withan R2 of 0.702 showed that about 70% of the total variations in the income from fuelwood were caused by the specified independent variables in the model. On ruralurbaninterdependence on forest, (79%) of money and income related benefits flowfrom urban to rural areas; (88%) of benefits relating to innovative ideas on forestrymanagement and conservation flow from urban to rural areas, about (68%) of forestrelated market information spread from urban areas to the people in rural areas whileabout (55%) of awareness of the importance of forest and its related products flowfrom the urban to rural This suggest that supplementing broilerration with bioactive yeast may improve the digestibility and efficiency ofutilization of RMW. The 80 broiler chicks used in this study were randomlydistributed in five groups of sixteen birds each. Each group was subdivided intofour replicates of 8 birds each. Group 1 was placed on experimental diet made of1.5 g/kg yeast basal feed and no RMW, Group 2 was fed on a diet of 1.5 g/kgbioactive yeast, basal feed and 10% RMW, Group 3 and 4 were fed feed containing1.5 g/kg bioactive yeast, 15 and 20 % RMW respectively while group 5, the controlhad no RMW and bioactive yeast. Feed and water were given to the birds adlibitum.Daily feed intake and weekly weight gain were determined. Data werecollected on nutrient intake, growth performance, feed intake, growth rate, weightgain, feed conversion ratio, apparent nutrient retention, cost benefit analysis andcarcass weight. Bioactive yeast supplementation resulted in a significant (P<0.05)reduction in feed intake and cost. The results showed that up to 20% RMW withbioactive yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisae) supplementation are adequate foroprimum growth of broiler birds. However, more research work should be done todetermine the usage of bioactive yeast in commercial broiler feed production.