Abstract
The cost of indispensable grains which function as the major energy source in livestock feeding has compelled many poultry farms to close down. This development has given rise to increasing search for substitute feed components that would replace the staple grains in the diets without automatically increasing direct cost on the feed. One of such unconventional feed ingredients accessible for use is the solid wastes (SWAPSI) arising from industrial production of table sugar. The effects of SWAPSI in place of maize on pullet chicks’ growth rate, nutrient digestibility, blood parameters and economic production were examined over the course of 63-day experimentation. A total of 300 pullets (9 weeks old) were distributed to the five treatment groups such that each treatment had 60 birds. Each treatment was replicated 4 times with each replicate having 15 birds. The organization was done to fit into a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The birds were administered a weighted amount of feed and water was provided ad – libitum. Five investigational diets labeled T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous (18% crude protein) and iso-caloric (2700kcal/kg ME), with SWAPSI supplanting maize at 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80% for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, in turn. Diet T1 functioned as the control for the rest of the treatments and all the diets were formulated to meet the nutritional requisite of pullet chicks. Annals collected covered the growth parameters and economics of production. The result indicates that inclusion of SWAPSI in the diets meaningfully (P<0.05) abridged final body weight (509.49 vs. 467.63 vs. 418.06 and 399.59 g/bird), total weight gain (583.29 vs. 478.24 vs. 436.30 vs. 386.70 and 368.27 g/bird), and daily weight gain (11.21 vs. 9.19 vs. 8.39 vs. 7.43 and 7.08 g/bird/day) for birds fed diets T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively as related to those fed the reference diet. Similarly, birds fed the control diet had better (P<0.05) performance of FCR (3.66) but the poorest protein efficiency ratio (0.62) and energy efficiency ratio (21.60). SWAPSI significantly (P<0.05) reduced the digestibility of crude fat (78.63%) and nitrogen-free extract (49.13%) at T5; pullets fed diets T1 to T4 performed uniformly until the addition of SWAPSI up to 80% (T5). The outcome also exposed that SWAPSI inclusion meaningfully (P<0.05) reduced cost of feed consumed, cost of feed per kg weight gain, total cost of production, revenue produced and gross margin. It can be concluded that poultry farmers can add up to 40% of SWAPSI in diets of pullets without affecting the growth performance and profitability of the production.