Indian Journal of Poultry Science

Day-old broiler chicks (n=180) were distributed into 18 groups of 10 chicks each. Six dietary treatments were designed incorporating un-decorticated sunflower seed meal (SSM) at 0, 5 and 10% level in diet based on maize alone or 50% of maize replaced with whole pearl millet on fixed calorieprotein ratio basis. The diets were fonnulated for starting (0–4 weeks) and finishing (4–7 weeks) periods. Each of such diet was offered to triplicate groups of chicks for a period of seven week (0–7 weeks of age). The perfonnance of chicks with respect to gain in body weight, feed intake, feed efficiency and protein and energy efficiency was evaluated. A metabolic trial at six weeks of age was conducted to determine the nutrient utilization. Certain carcass traits, yield of organs and cut of parts were also measured.

Neither gain in body weight nor feed intake was altered at any inclusion level of SSM (0, 5% or 10%) in either maize or maize-pearl millet diet during both the growth phases. However, during overall growth period (0–7 weeks) the feed conversion ratio became poorer (P<0.05) on inclusion of 10% SSM in diet based on maize and soybean. The combination of I0% SSM with maize and pearl millet (50:50) had better FCR than the diet having maize alone. Except for dry matter metabolizabil ity (significantly poorer in pearl millet based diets than control), energy metabolizability or nitrogen uilization did not differ due to dietary treatments. The data of carcass and organ yield and cut of parts except neck did not differ among dietary treatments. The values of feed cost per unit gain or meal production differed significantly being higher in sunflower seed meal.

The overall results indicated that un-decorticated sunflower seed meal (SSM) could be includedupto 10% level replacing part of soybean meal in maize or maize-pearl millet based broiler diet with adjustment of dietary energy and protein levels as per requirements. However, combination of maize and pearl millet at 1: 1 ratio with soybean meal alone or SSM yielded apparently better performance than maize with soybean meal.