ABSTRACTS
The Nigerian poultry industry in particular has been rapidly expanding in recent years and is therefore one of the most commercialized subsectors of Nigerian agriculture. This research was aimed at evaluating the comparative nutritional effect of formulated poultry feed prepared from domestic wastes, commercial finisher feed and mixture of both. on Noiler breed of chicken at 12 to 16 weeks. The various biological wastes were obtained and prepared by drying the raw materials with an oven at 400C and grounded to size powder separately using a heavy duty grinder. The grounded biological wastes were weighed and combined in equal ratio. The quantitative proximate, mineral compositions of feeds, nutritional composition of feeds were carried out using standard procedures. After four (4) weeks feeding the chickens were sacrificed and blood was collected for haematological and biochemical (liver function tests and lipid profile tests) studies were carried out. From the result, the quantitative proximate test showed that the initial nutritional content in both the commercial and formulated feed respectively became higher when both were mixed in equal ratio (1:1). The result of the mineral content of the commercial, locally formulated and mixed poultry feed showed that Potassium, calcium chloride, zinc, sodium, calcium and iron were more present in the mixed feed when compared with the commercial and locally formulated feeds. The nutritional composition analysis of feeds showed that proteins, carbohydrate, lipids, vitamin A, thiamine, minerals, ash, and fibre contents were more present when both commercial and formulated feeds were mixed compared to when they were analyzed separately. The weight index carried out at one (1) week intervals showed significant increase of weight between commercial, formulated, and mixed feeds at week sixteen (16) compared to week twelve (12). The haematological study carried out on the blood after sacrifice revealed significant (*p≤0.05) rise in some parameters like the red and white blood cells, packed cell volume, lymphocytes including monocytes in relation to the commercial, locally formulated and mixed poultry feed respectively. The liver function tests carried out on the sera after sacrifice showed no significant changes were observed between the commercial, locally formulated and mixed poultry feed respectively. The lipid profile tests carried out on the sera after sacrifice also showed no significant difference in triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) and LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein). The formulated feed of (beans 12 shaft, egg shells, cassava peel, snail shells, fish crumps, dried corn shaft and ash) poses a subtle substitute for noiler fowl commercial finisher feed, but the best result when combined.
