PERFORMANCE TRAITS, BLOOD BIOCHEMISTRY, IMMUNE RESPONSE AND ECONOMIC APPRAISAL OF BROILERS FED DIFFERENT LEVELS OF POULTRY BYPRODUCTS COMPOST

The effect of including poultry house byproducts compost in the diet of broiler chickens was evaluated. A total of 300 newly hatched broiler chicks (Cobb-500) were randomly stratified to five treatment groups in a completely randomized design. Compost was added at four different concentrations i.e. 0, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10%. Treatment without any addition of compost (0%) was kept as control. Performance traits, blood biochemistry, immune antibody response, and economic appraisal of broiler chickens were monitored for a period of 35 days. Addition of compost in broiler diet had no effect on feed intake (FI), live weight gain (LWG), feed efficiency (FE), and mortality of birds (P>0.05). Increase in compost inclusion level (10%) caused a marked decrease in abdominal fat content compared to control and 2.5% compost diet. However, carcass yield and relative weights of breast, thigh, wing, liver, gizzard, and heart were not significantly different across treatments (P>0.05). Similarly, there were no differences in serum biochemical indices and immune-related parameters in birds fed the different diets. Birds fed the 10% compost diet, however, showed the lowest feed cost per kg weight gain compared to those fed the control diet (P>0.05). These results indicate that compost can be utilized at levels up to 10% in broiler diets without any detrimental effects on performance traits, serum biochemistry, and immune response. Furthermore, the utilization of compost as a feed resource may reduce feed cost (FC) per kg live weight gain.