Growth Performance and Digestibility of Starter Broiler Chicks Fed Diets Containing Different Duration of Fermented Baobab (Adansonia digitata) Seed Meal

A nutrient retention and growth performance study were conducted with broiler chicks to evaluate the effect of different duration of fermented baobab seed meal (FBSM). Fermented baobab (Adansonia digitata) seeds were ground and incorporated in the diets at 12% dietary level. Diet 1 (control diet) had no BSM. Diet 2 had unfermented BSM. Diets 3, 4 and 5 had baobab seed meal (BSM) fermented for 48 h, 72 h and 96 h, respectively. Two hundred and forty (240) Arbor Acre chicks at one-week old were weighed and distributed to these dietary treatments. The five (5) treatments were replicated four (4) times in a completely randomized design, with 12 birds per replicate (48 per treatment). The diets did not significantly (p>0.05) influenced Feed intake, final body weight, feed conversion ratio and protein intake across treatments. The body weight gain and protein efficiency ratio of the chicks fed 96 h fermented BSM were not significantly (p>0.05) different with those fed control diet but were significantly (p<0.05) higher than chicks of other treatment groups. Starter broiler chicks fed T4 had significantly (p<0.05) higher nutrient digestibility parameters across treatments, except for EE and CF that were highly digested by chicks fed T3 and T1 respectively. In conclusion the performance of broiler chicks fed 96 h FBSM competed favorably with those fed control diet, whereas, chicks placed on 72 h FBSM recorded better result of nutrient digestibility.