Growth performance, carcass characteristics and organoleptic properties of broiler finisher fed graded levels of ginger root meal (grm) basal diets.

Abstract

An experiment to compare the effect of varying inclusion levels of ginger root meal (zingiber officianale)on growth performance, carcass and organoleptic qualities of finishing broiler chicken was conducted in the Poultry Unit of the Teaching and Research Farm of Department of Animal Science Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State. 150 ANAK 2000 day old chicks were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments with diet 1 being the control (0%) and diets 2, 3, 4 and 5 contain the inclusion levels of ginger root meal at 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0% respectively. In a complete randomized design (CRD),50 birds were assigned to each treatments with 10 birds per replicate. Performance parameters, carcass characteristics and organoleptic qualities were assessed. Result on the performance characteristics revealed that average final weight, feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio were significantly (P<0.05) higher in control similar to those on 1.5%GRM. Carcass characteristic study revealed that live weight, slaughtered, defeathered, eviscerated weights and dressing percentages were significantly (P<0.05) higher in birds fed the control similar to those on 1.5%GRM. Weight of shanks, breast muscles, neck and back were significantly influenced (P<0.05) with highest values recorded among birds fed 1.5%GRM. For organoleptic quality, appearance, flavour, juiciness, overall acceptance and calculated overall acceptance were all significantly (P<0.05) affected. It is therefore concluded that the dietary inclusion of ginger root meal in broiler diets at 1.5% inclusion levels had positive effects on the growth performance, carcass characteristics of the birds and organoleptic quality of the chicken meat.