Indian Journal of Poultry Science

The response of broiler chicks fed 15% raw and chemically treated rapeseed meal (RSM) in diet, for part of soybean meal (SBM) and deoiled rice bran on equal nitrogen basis, was investigated. Commercially available RSM was treated with CuSO₄.5H₂O (2 g/kg) or FeSO₄.7Hp (10 g/kg) or both and employed in diet as such or with iodine (6.67 mg/kg RSM) to formulate eight diets such as a standard SBM, another raw RSM, Cu-tretade RSM, Fe treated RSM, Cu+Fe treated RSM, Cu-treated RSM with iccine, Fe-treated RSM with iodine and Cu+Fe treated RSM with iodine. Each one of the eight diets was of fered as mash ad lib to quadruplicate lots of 12 chicks each from 0–42 d of age. Growth data revealed that irrespective of supplemental iodine, chicks fed Cu treated RSM grew significantly (P<0.01) better to those fed other diets. Birds fed raw RSM exhibited poorest growth. Even though the feed intake of chicks appeared to have not been influenced by the dietary treatment, the birds fed raw RSM had significantly (P<0.05) poor feed conversion and those fed chemically treated RSM had significantly (P<0.05) better feed conversion. The dressing percentage of broilers appeared to have not been significantly (P<0.05) influenced due to dietary treatment. It is concluded that the treatment with copper and ferrous salts enhanced the feeding value of raw rapeseed meal for broiler chickens, whereas supplemental iodine salt of fered no additional advantage.