The Nutritive Value and Evaluation of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea Batatas) Leaf Meal on the Growth Performance of Broiler Chickens

A total of 60 Russ 2011 two weeks old broiler chicks with an average weight of 215.33+4.55g were fed with diets compounded with sweet potato leaves (SPL) for 56 days. The diets consist of T1 (0% SPL), T2 (5% SPL), T3 (10% SPL) and T4 (15% SPL). The proximate composition of the SPL was determined in the laboratory. The birds were randomly allocated to four treatments using completely randomized design (CRD). Each treatment was subdivided into three replicates of five chicks each. At the end of the experiment, all data collected were subjected to one way analysis of variance and difference in means was separated using Duncan’s New Multiple Range Test. The results showed that SPL contains 4.07%, 24.21%, 7.74%, 3.88%, 11.05% and 49.05% of moisture, crude protein, crude fibre, crude fat, ash and nitrogen free extract respectively. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the average body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). However, birds on T2 (32.77g) had the best daily body weight gain followed by T4 (30.36g), T3 (30.06g) and T1 (29.21g) while in terms of daily feed intake, T4 (98.20g) consumed most followed by T2 (98.17g) and T3 (96.59g) whereas, T1 (92.38g) consumed the least feed. The birds on T2 (3.00) demonstrated the best FCR followed by T1 (3.16), T3 (3.21) and T4 (3.23). Also T1 (1.59) showed the best PER closely followed by T1 (1.53), T3 (1.46) and T4 (1.43). It is therefore recommended that inclusion of SPL up to 5% in the diet of broilers is good for enhanced body weight gain, FCR and PER.