Effect of copper sulphate treated mustard seed cake on growth performance of broilers

The present study was conducted to assess the effect of treated or untreated expeller mustard seed cake on growth performance of broilers. A 42 d experiment was conducted with day-old Cob 400 strain broiler chicks. The chicks were weighed individually and randomly assigned to seven dietary treatments each containing five replicates of 10 chicks. The control (T₁) group contained decorticated expeller groundnut cake (42.10% CP and 2.63 Kcal/kg ME) while in T₂, T₃, and T₄ it was replaced with expeller mustard seed cake (MSC) at 25, 50 and 75%, respectively (on protein equivalent basis). The ingredient composition of feeds groups T₅, T₆ and T₇ was similar to T₂, T₃, and T₄, respectively except supplemented MSC was treated with 0.4% copper sulphate. Total feed consumption in 6 wk period was 4744.93±30.71, 4798.30±29.78, 4746.60±28.56, 4864.38±30.06, 4838.60±32.00, 4692.93±31.50 and 4829.42 ±31.93 (g) in groups T₁ to T₇, respectively, which were not different (P>0.05). Total bodyweight gain during experimental period in different experimental groups also did not differ (P>0.05). It was concluded that GNC can be replaced with expeller MSC up to 75%, on protein equivalent basis. Expeller MSC treated with 0.4% copper sulphate did not show any beneficial effect compared to untreated MSC.