EFFECT OF DIET CONTAINING AFRICAN NUTMEG (MONODORAMYRISTICA) ON PERFORMANCE OF PULLET CHICKS

Abstract

This research was carried out to determine the potency of Monodoramyristicaspice as feed additive in egg-type chicken diet. Feeding trial which lasted for 35 days was conducted on 150 three weeks (21 days) old lohmann breed egg-type birds .The design used was  a completely randomized design (CRD) to investigate the effects of the spice on the growth parameters. The  birds were randomly allocated to 5 dietary treatments designated as D1,D2, D3, D4 and D5 having 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1.0% of Monodora respectively with each replicated 3 times at 10 chicks per replicate. The analysis of variance of data collected showed significant (p < 0.05) improvement on daily body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency by the addition of Monodoramyristicain to the diets at 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1.0% inclusion. From results obtained may be concluded that Monodoramyristicais valuable spice that should be used to supplement pullet chicks diet at a level not below 0.5% (5gkg^-1) inclusion and should be used as part of the ingredients for chick feeds.