Effect of Feeding Different Levels of Tigernut (Cyperus esculentus L) Meal on Growth of Broiler Chicks

An investigation into the replacement value of tigernut meal as substitute for maize in diets of broiler starter was studied. Tigernut tubers were sundried for 5 days and milled to produce tigernut meal. This was used to replace maize at dietary levels of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% represented by T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively in five isonitrogenous diets containing 22% crude protein; the diet containing no tigernut meal was used as control (T1). Three hundred day-old (Anak strain) chicks were randomly assigned to the five dietary treatments in a completely randomized design to determine the effect of the test ingredient on feed intake, body weight changes and feed conversation ratio. Result indicated that feed intake reduced as dietary level of tigernut increased in the diets (p<0.05), similar trend was observed for body weight changes. There was no significant difference among treatment groups for feed conversion ratio (p>0.05).The findings from this experiment suggested that tiger nut meal can replace maize up to 75% dietary level in diets of broiler starter chicks without compromising growth.