Nutritional Evaluation Of Toasted White Sesame Seed Meal Sesamum Indicum As A Source Of Methionine On Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Haematological And Biochemical Indices Of Finisher Broiler Chickens

One hundred and fifty (150) Anak-2000 day-old broiler chicks were used to investigate the effect of toasted white sesame seed meal (TWSSM) as a source of methionine on growth performance, carcass characteristic, haematological and biochemical indices of broiler finisher chickens. The chicks were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments consisting of three replicates of ten chicks per replicate in a completely randomized design. The dietary treatments were TWSSM at 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16% representing treatments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. For eight weeks, data were collected on feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio. At the end of the experiment, 6 birds were randomly selected from each treatment and slaughtered to determine the effect of TWSSM on carcass characteristics and internal organs weight. Blood samples were also collected from 6 birds in each treatment for haematological and biochemical studies. Results from growth performance revealed that all the growth parameters were not significantly (P>0.0) affected by the levels of TWSSM supplementation except feed intake which was significantly (P<0.05) higher in treatment 1 (0%). The values for carcass characteristics and internal organs weight also did not show any significant difference (P>0.05) across the treatments. Significant (P<0.05) variation was however observed in the values of abdominal fat which increased with increasing level of TWSSM. Supplementation level of TWSSM did not affect the haematological parameters while biochemical indices such as protein, urea and glucose were significantly influenced by the treatment diets. It appears therefore that supplementation of TWSSM at 18% did not affect the performance and blood profile of broiler finisher chickens.