Growth Performance of Indigenous Guinea Fowls Fed Varied Levels of Boiled Mango Kernel Meal
Anthony A. Agbolosu, Francis Amoah and Herbert K. Dei
Corresponding author: Anthony A. Agbolosu. Email address: aagbolosu@uds.edu.gh
ABSTRACT
A study was conducted to determine effects of varied levels of boiled mango kernel meal (BMKM) as a replacement for maize on growth performance of local guinea fowls. The BMKM was obtained by cutting the seed open with knife and the mango kernel chopped into pieces, boiled at 100oC for 30 minutes and sun-dried for 72 hours. One hundred and twenty, 28-day old local guinea keets of similar live weights (118g ± 2g/bird) were randomly allotted to 4 dietary treatments containing 3 replicates of 10 birds each. The BMKM replaced maize at inclusion levels of 0% (control), 10%, 15% and 20%, respectively. Clean water was provided ad-libitum. Data were collected on mean feed intake, final live weight, daily weight gain, feed conversion efficiency (FCE), feed cost per kg gain and analyzed using ANOVA by GENSTATS (3rd Edition). There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in mean feed intake, final live-weight, daily weight gain, FCE, feed cost per kg and feed cost per gain between birds fed the control diets and diets containing BMKM. There was no significant differences (P>0.05) in mortality of birds on the various treatments. It was concluded that boiled mango kernel meal could replace maize up to 20% in the diet of local guinea fowls without any adverse effects on growth.
Keywords: Indigenous guinea fowl, growth performance, mango kernel meal, boiled, replacement
INTRODUCTION
Poultry production is an important part of the daily life of man, especially of the rural farmers where poultry are raised for several purposes such as offering considerable dietary animal protein supply for human growth (Kondombo et al., 2003). Some of these poultry species include turkey, domestic fowl, duck, peafowl, Japanese quill, pigeon, ostrich and guinea fowl (Payne, 1990).One of the greatest challenges facing the livestock industry in developing countries is the provision of nutritionally balanced and cost-effective rations, since feed constitutes about 65%-80% of the total cost of production (Durunna et al., 2000). Hence it is necessary to look for locally available, cheap, safe and nutritionally adequate substitutes for maize in poultry feeding. Lots of feeding trials involving cheap locally available feed ingredients have been conducted with the aim of solving or reducing high feed costs. Such feeds include blood meal (Donkoh et al., 1999), oilseed cakes (Kocher, 2002),mucuna beans (Sarfo, 2004), false yam tuber (Dei et al., 2011) and mango seed kernel (Diarra and Usman, 2008).
Mango kernel, a by-product of mango pulp is reported to be a good source of soluble carbohydrates (Diarra and Usman, 2008). The protein of the kernel (7.8 – 8.0%) is comparable to that of maize but it has higher fat (7.8 - 9.0%) than maize (Jadhav and Siddiqui, 2010). In India, mango kernel is consumed by human beings in the form of porridge (Saadany, 1980) but in Ghana, it is regarded as waste thus contributing to environmental pollution. The high carbohydrate content (Ravindran and Blair, 1991) and high-quality proteins of the seed kernels (Augustine and Ling, 1987) could therefore be exploited using poultry, which are the most efficient converters of raw ingredients such as starches, sugars and proteins into meat and egg products (Adegbola, 1990). There are few reports on the use of mango kernel in livestock feeding but the level of inclusion in poultry diets has been low because of the presence of tannins which exerts anti-nutritive effects that reduce chick growth (Teguia, 1995).
However, boiling has been reported to be an effective method of tannin reduction. Boiling reduced up to 53% tannin in African oil bean (Ugherughe and Ekedolun, 1986) and about 55% tannin in mango kernel (Diarra and Usman, 2008). Because of the abundant accessibility and cheap cost of mango kernel, it would be interesting to investigate the effect of inclusion of mango kernel in poultry diets. This study was therefore undertaken to determine the effect of dietary boiled mango kernel meal (BMKM) on local guinea fowl growth performance and to assess the cost effectiveness of using BMKM as a feed ingredient.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Location of experimental site
The trial was undertaken at the Poultry Section of the Department of Animal Science, University for Development Studies, Nyankpala Campus, Tamale between August 2011 to November 2011. Nyankpala is located about 16km West of Tamale and lies on latitude 9o 25’ 41’’North and longitude 0o 58’ 42’’ West in the Guinea Savanna zone. It has an average annual rainfall of 1034.4mm. Mean annual daytime humidity is 54% with relative humidity usually high in the morning and low at night. Annual temperature is 28.3oC (SARI, 2004). The study area is characterized by low, seasonal, uni-modal and poorly distributed rainfall. The dry season lasts for about six to seven months.
Sources and processing of Boiled Mango Kernel meal
Mango seeds were collected by both women and children during the month of May (peak of the mango season in Nyankpala). The kernel was obtained by cutting the seed open with knife. The fresh kernel was chopped to reduce the particle size andthen boiled in a metal pot with tap water at 100oC for 30 minutes, followed by sun-drying on a clean cemented floorfor 72 hours. The dried kernel was ground in a grinding mill and labeled as BMKM (i.e. Boiled Mango Kernel meal).
Experimental diets
Four dietary treatments were formulated for the experiment (Table 1) with reference to Diarra et al. (2010). Diet 1 which was the control contained no BMKM (i.e. 0%). In diets 2, 3 and 4,BMKM replaced maize at 10, 15 and 20% respectively. The BMKM replaced maize on weight by weight basis on the assumption that they have similar nutrient composition, since the BMKM was not analyzed for its nutrient composition due to logistic constraints.
Experimental birds, design and their management
A total of 120, 28 day-old guinea keets of similar weight (mean live weight was 116g per bird) were weighed and randomly allotted to 4 treatments containing 3 replicates each, with 10 birds per replicate. The birds were housedin a raised floor pen with wire mesh. Birds in each replicate were confined in a cage of size 2.3m × 1.25m ×1.8m with a floor space of 0.287m2 per bird. Rice husk was used as a bedding material which was spread to a depth of about 0.6cm.Feed for birds were provided in wooden feeding troughs in the morning and evening. Clean fresh water was provided ad-libitum in plastic watering troughs throughout the experiment. Coccidiostat (Amprolin-300 ws powder) was administered orally at 5g/10L of water for 3 consecutive days as well as antibiotics (Aliserylws powder) at 5g/10L of water for 4-5 days respectively as and when necessary. Birds were also dewormed once every month with Piperazine at 5g/10L water. Biosecurity measures in the poultry house were ensured by using disinfectant (Izal) for cleaning and as footbath. Six (100w) white incandescent electric bulbs were provided as a source of light throughout the experiment to promote feeding particularly during the night. Data was taken every week from the 5th to 15th week of age.
RESULTS
Growth performance
A summary of the performance data of local guinea fowls fed varied levels of BMKM is shown in Table 2.The average daily feed intake was not significantly different (P>0.05) for birds on the control diet (0%BMKM) and the other diets. Numerically, mean feed intake increased for birds on BMKM-based diets increased from 10 to 20% as compared to birds fed with 0% BMKM.
Mean weight gain did not vary significantly (P>0.05) between the control fed birds and the birds on test diets and within the treatment groups. Average weight gain of the birds on control diet was numerically similar to birds fed 10% BMKM test diet but slightly lower in birds fed 15% and 20% BMKM. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in FCE,although less feed intake but better feed conversion efficiency were recorded for birds in fed 10%BMKM as compared to their counterparts fed the other diets. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between control and the other treatments groups. Final live-weight of birds on control diet tended to be similar to that of birds fed 10% BMKM test diet but slightly lower in birds fed 15% and 20% BMKM.As shown in Table 3, feed cost per kg in all treatment diets was similar with slight increase in feed cost per bird of the BMKM-based diets except for those on 10% which was equivalent to those on 0% BMKM. From the experiments a total of 20 birds (5, 4, 6 and 5 birds in T0, T1, T2 and T3 respectively) died.
DISCUSSION
Feed intake
The present report on feed intake, agrees with the observation of Diarra et al. (2010) who observed no significant differences (P>0.05) in daily feed intake in broiler chickens fed graded levels of boiled mango kernel meal as a replacement for maize. This suggests that the combination of boiling and sun drying could be suitably employed to prepare mango kernel meal for inclusion in diets forguinea fowls. The similarity in the consumption of the feed between birds fed control diet and the BMKM indicated that, boiling might have reduced the anti-nutritional factors in the kernel thereby making the feed palatable.
Growth Performance
Weight gain
Although the birds on the different dietary treatments consumed similar amounts of feed, live-weight gains of guinea fowls fed 0% and 10% BMKM in absolute term were slightly higher than those fed the diets containing 15% and20% BMKM. It was expected that consumption of similar amount of feed by the birds would have yielded similar live-weight gains. The lower live-weight gain of birds on the 15% and 20% replacement diets could be due to the fact that, the tannin content in the mango kernel of these diets may beabove the threshold of 0.30% that can be tolerated by chicks as reported by Jansmanet al. (1989). This might be associated with the residual tannins present in the BMKM since boiling did not completely remove the tannins. The findings of this experiment on weight gain agrees with Douglas et al., (1993) who reported that, increasing dietary tannins significantly reduced weight gain in young turkeys while there were no adverse of tannins on performance once the turkeys were 57 days old or older.Jansman (1993) reported that addition of tannins to the diet can lead to a lower apparent digestibility of crude protein and to a lesser extent, energy. Thus the lower growth rate, though insignificant, observed for birds on 15% and 20% BMKM diets might be caused by a reduced amount of protein and other nutrients available for growth.
Feed conversion efficiency and mortality
In numerical terms, feed conversion efficiency value obtained for birds fed the control diet was highercompared to those obtained for birds on the BMKM diets. This was expected as the BMKM diets contain some tannin as reported earlier on (Jansman, 1993) impairs feed conversion efficiency. Mortalities werenot traceable to any dietary effect but were reported to be internal hemorrhage in the skull of the birds due to an electric shock that occurred during repair of some electrical fittings in the pen.
Economic evaluation
The costs per kilogram of feed for the formulated diets are shown in Table 3. Even though the Mango Seed Kernels were (MSK) obtained free of charge from the market grounds of Nyankpala, it was assigned a value of GHȼ 0.30 (i.e. $0.078) per kg being the cost incurred in collecting the mango seed kernel plus cost incurred in producing the meal. The reduction in the cost of the feed with the increase in the level of mango kernel was due to the relatively cheaper price of MSK compared to maize (GHȼ 0.70 per kg)(i. e. $ 0.182) at the time of the experiment. However, the cost of feed to produce a kg of bird on the 10% was equivalent tothose on 0% BMKM and lower than those on 15% and 20% BMKM.Hence the use of the BMKM was economical.
CONCLUSIONAND RECOMMENDATION
Based on the results of the present study, BMKM could be included in the diets of local guinea fowls up to 20% during the growth phase without any adverse effects on performance. The use of the BMKM-based diet was economical in guinea fowl production.Further study should be conducted to determine the effect of soaking the mango kernel prior to boiling since soaking has been shown to reduce concentrations of tannins
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