ABSTRACT
Sun-dried blend of maize offal and blood (SDMBM) was analyzed and its effect on the per- formance of broiler chickens (Anak-2000 strain) evaluated. Fresh blood prevented from coagu- lation, mixed with maize offal, was sun-dried, ground, mixed again with blood and ground into a meal after drying again. The crude protein, fat, fibre, ash, ADF and gross energy contents of SDMBM were, 362.0, 45.5, 31.8, 69.3, 52.3 g/kg DM and 4.245 kcal/g, respectively. It was ade- quate in all essential amino acids for growing broiler chickens except methionine. Eighty 14- day-old commercial broiler chicks were ran- domly allocated to four dietary treatments (fed ad libitum; four replicates each) consisting the control diet (0 g SDMBM/kg diet), which con- tained fishmeal, groundnut cake and soybean meal, and three other diets (50, 100 and 150 g SDMBM/kg diet). In a feeding trial, the starter (14 to 35 d) and finisher (35 to 49 d) dietary treat- ments did not have significant impact (P > 0.05) on body weight gain, efficiency of feed conver- sion, mortality and final body weights. The con- trol diet was inferior (P < 0.05) to 50, 100 and 150 g SDMBM/kg diets for feed cost per unit weight gain in the starter phase, 100 g SDMBM/kg diet in the finisher phase, and 100 and 150 g SDMBM/ kg diets for the whole period (14 to 49 d). Overall, the 100 and 150 g superior (P < 0.05) to the con- trol diet in cost of production per unit weight gain and all the SDMBM diets greater than con- trol in economic benefit per unit weight gain. Results suggest that dietary SDMBM up to 150 g/kg diet has a positive effect on broiler per- formance and can totally replace more expen- sive fishmeal.