THE EFFECTS OF PARTIAL REPLACEMENT OF SOYABEAN MEAL WITH BOILED FEATHER MEAL ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS

An experiment was conducted using 160 Arbor Acres broiler strain of chickens to evaluate the effects of partial replacement of soyabean meal with feather meal on the diets of broiler chickens raised from day old to 8 weeks of age. Feathers, obtained from a local poultry processing plant, were boiled in water for 30 minutes, sun-dried and ground using a 2 mm sieve for inclusion into the experimental diets at 0, 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5% levels at the expense of soyabean meal. The feather meal was assayed and found to contain 86.5% crude protein and to be low in lysine, methionine and histidine amino acids. The inclusion of such processed feather meal up to 3% in the diet did not (p>0.05) affect growth or feed conversion ratio. However, the highest level of inclusion of feather meal in the diet, 4.5%, significantly reduced both growth rate and feed conversion ratio of the birds. The results of this experiment showed that up to 3% of water-boiled feather meal, which represents 12% of dietary protein, the equivalent of 6% level of use of soyabean meal in the diet, can be successfully included as a protein source in the diets of broiler chickens.