Supplementation of raw and toasted guar meal on the performance and nutrient utilization in broilers

A biological trial was undertaken in a completely randomized design to study the effect of temperature and time of toasting on the feeding value of guar meal (GM) on the performance and nutrient digestibility in commercial broiler chicken. A total of 400 one-day-old broiler male chicks (Cobb 400) were allotted to eight dietary treatments (1 control + 7 test diets) in such a way that each treatment had 10 replicates of 5 chicks each. Dietary treatments received iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric diets containing 0% GM (control), 10% raw GM (T₂) and 10% TGM (GM toasted at 100°C for 15, 30 and 45 minutes as T₃, T₄ and T₅ respectively) and 10% TGM (raw GM toasted at 110°C for 15, 30 and 45 minutes as T₆, T₇ and T₈,respectively) replacing soybean meal (SBM) in starter (0–21) and finisher (22 to 42 days of age) diets. Results showed that inclusion of TGM up to 10% in broiler diets significantly depressed the body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio. However, energy retention, dry matter digestibility, protein retention and slaughter variables (ready-to-cook yield, breast meat, abdominal fat, giblet and pancreas) remained unaffected (P>0.05). Concentration of total protein, albumin and total cholesterol in serum were remained un-affected (P>0.05), whereas, feed cost incurred per kg live weight gain was comparable to that of control. From the results, it could be concluded that GM (raw or toasted (100°C or 110°C for 15, 30 and 45 minutes) incorporated up to 10% in broiler diets depressed the growth performance of broilers.