Effect of Cotton Seed Meal on the Performance Traits and Meat Composition in Commercial Broilers

Aims: To evaluate the effect of different levels of cotton seed meal (CSM) on performance traits and meat composition in commercial broilers.

Place and Duration of the Study: The experiment was carried out at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Salna, Gazipur during the period from 26 February, 2018 to 10 April, 2018.

Study Design and Methodology: Two hundred fifty two Cobb-500 day-old broiler chicks with good health were randomly allotted to six dietary treatments in three replications with fourteen birds per replication in a complete randomized design for 35 days period. The dietary treatments were: T0, soyabean meal (SBM) based diet; T1, 10% CSM protein with 90% SBM protein; T2, 20% CSM protein with 80% SBM protein; T3, 30% CSM protein with 70% SBM protein; T4, 40% CSM protein with 60% SBM protein and T5, 50% CSM protein with 50% SBM protein. The mash feed was supplied ad libitum basis.

Results: Average feed intake (g/d) was increased (P=0.001) in higher amount of CSM group. Dressing percentage was tended to higher (P = 0.089) in T0 and lower value was showed in T5. Crude protein (CP) content of breast meat significantly (P < 0.01) affected among the treatments. The highest CP content was observed in T5 (22.57%) and lowest CP content was in T1 (21.12%). Crude fibre (CF) content was significantly increased (P < 0.01) in the diet contained higher amount of CSM (0.35%, 0.32%, 0.31%, 0.22%, 0.13% for T5, T4, T3, T2 and T1; respectively) and the lowest CF was observed for T0 (0.11%). Ether extract (EE) of breast muscle was also significantly increased (P < 0.01) in the diet contained higher amount of CSM (1.27%, 1.15%, 1.12%, 1.09%, 1.05% for T5, T4, T3, T2 and T1; respectively) and lower EE was observed in T0 group (1.01%). Ash content was higher (P < 0.05) in T0 (1.49%), T2 (1.48%) and T3 (1.45%) group compare to others. The second higher value was observed for T1 (1.4%) diet and the lowest ash content was observed in T4 (1.25%) and T5 (1.32%).

Conclusion: It would be concluded that CSM can be a substitute of soyabean meal in broiler ration and up to 40% CSM protein can be incorporated in broiler chicken diet without any adverse effects.