Abstract
A feeding trial was conducted to determine the effects of replacing maize with rice bran on the growth performance
of broiler chicks for sustainable food security. Three specific purposes and three research questions guided the
study. The experiment was carried out in the Department of Agricultural Education Poultry Unit, UNN. A Completely
Randomized Design (CPD) was adopted, and a total of 124-day-old chicks from Royal Hatchery Farms, Ibadan were
studied. The chicks were reared together for a period of one week, and thereafter, the 120 chicks that survived after
one-week adaption were distributed into four treatment groups- T1, T2, T3 and T4 through a simple random
selection, each group had 30 birds with three replicates of 10 birds each. Four different diets containing varying
levels of inclusion of rice bran were formulated. The birds in T2, T3 and T4 were supplemented with scent leaf extract
via the drinking water, while the birds in Tl (control group) were given oxytetracycline antibiotic. Data on daily feed
intake and weekly weight gain were collected using weighing scale, while data on feed conversion ratio was
computed. Data collected were analyzed using mean. The results from the study showed that Treatment 3- the group
fed 5% rice bran and 10ml scent leaf extract performed best in terms of feed conversion ratio, weekly body weight
gain and average body weight. T3 had 1.82 and 1.90 feed conversion ratio for week 2 and week 4, while T2 got the
best feed conversion ratio of 1.89 for week 3. For feed intake, the result showed that Tl recorded the highest average
weekly feed intake of 290.99g at week 2; while T3 recorded highest mean weekly feed intake of 576.15g at week 3;
whereas in week 4, T2 obtained the greatest mean weekly feed intake of 875.11 g. The result further revealed that
T3 had the highest average weekly body weight gain of 105.90g, 355,12g and 327.77g for weeks 2, 3, and 4
respectively The findings further revealed that Treatment 4 had the highest mean body weight of 1300.12g at the
end of week 4 closely followed by Treatment 2 had mean body weight of 1250.77g whereas T4 obtained the lowest
mean body weight of 1050.7lg. Based on the findings, the study concluded that inclusion of 5% rice bran for partial
replacement of maize, supplemented with 10ml scent leaf extract would enhance the performance of broiler chicks
.
Keywords: Broiler birds, Growth Performance, Rice Bran, Scent Leaf extract.
Publication Date: 2023-09-09