Growth performance and nutrients digestibility of cockerels fed varying levels of Garri-waste as replacement of maize

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of replacing maize with gaari-waste on the performance and nutrient digestibility of cockerels. One hundred and twenty cockerels were fed diets with 0%, 25%, 50% and 75% gaari-waste replacing maize for 70 days to determine the optimal level of gaari-waste inclusion in the cockerel diets. Experiments was conducted under completely randomized design (CRD) design using four dietary treatments, three replicates, and ten birds per replicate. Results revealed no significant difference (p>0.05) in feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio among treatments. Birds fed diet-1, diet-3 and diet-4 at the starter phase had the highest values of weight gain 40.41g, 33.26g and 30.66g, respectively while weight gains decreased as the inclusion levels of garri-waste increased as followed 45.77g, 43.03g, 38.77g and 35.67g for T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄ across dietary treatments, respectively. The highly significant (p<0.05) effect of crude protein (82.91), fiber (53.33) and dry matter digestibility (46.14) were observed with T₂ treatment, the least (68.63%) crude protein digestibility was obtained on the T₁ treatment while ash and dry matter digestibility with T₄ treatment had the least significant (p<0.05) effect of 30.77% and 22.08%, respectively. Conclusively, garri-waste can replace maize in cockerels’ diets up to 75% without adverse effects on growth performance and apparent nutrient digestibility, offering a cost-effective alternative to maize.