EFFECT OF PARTIAL REPLACEMENT OF ANIMAL PROTEIN BY PLANT PROTEIN ON PERFORMANCE OF BROILER

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the impact of plant protein instead of animal protein in diet of broilers. One hundred day-old Cobb 500 chicks were randomly distributed into two dietary treatment groups having 50 birds in each which were further distributed into five replicates. One dietary treatment group was fed on both plant and animal protein diet (soybean meal, meat and bone meal, protein concentrate); another treatment group was fed on solely plant protein diet (soybean meal). Chicks were reared under similar care and management conditions for twenty eight days and their diets were iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous. Results of the experiment showed that feed consumption of chicks on plant protein diet was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of the plant and animal protein combined diet from 0 - 4th week. In body weight, significant difference (P<0.05) was found from 0 - 4th week and plant protein group attained higher body weight than that of combined diet group. Body weight gain of birds of plant protein group was significantly higher (P<0.01) than that of animal protein group during 1st and 2nd week. No significant difference (P>0.05) in body weight gain was found during 3rd and 4th weeks of age between the treatment groups; however, plant protein group showed numerically higher body weight gain than that of combined diet group. Plant protein group showed numerically better feed conversion than animal protein treatment group from 0 - 4th week but it was found not significant (P>0.05) statistically. Furthermore, animal protein free diet significantly (P<0.05) reduced abdominal fat accumulation in broiler. There was found significant (P<0.05) difference in case of crude protein (CP) content of meat where it was higher in plant protein group than that of the animal protein group. From the economic perspective, the plant protein dietary group generated more profit than that of animal protein dietary group and the difference was significant (P<0.05). The results of this study imply that plant protein could partially replace the animal protein in ration of the broiler without any adverse effect on their performance.