Feed selection and growth performance of local chickens offered different carbohydrate sources in fresh and dried form supplemented with protein-rich forages

Kong Saroeun, Brian Ogle*, T R Preston** and Khieu Borin

Center for Livestock and Agriculture Development,
PO. Box 2423, Phnom Penh 3, Cambodia
saroeunkb@celagrid.org
*Department of Animal Nutrition and Management,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7024, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
**UTA - TOSOLY - Finca Ecológica, Morario - Guapota -
AA # 48, Socorro, Santander,  Colombia

Abstract

The experiment was carried out for 2 weeks with 240 local chickens at the age of 60 days (144 females and 96 males). The chicks were housed 10 per pen (4 males and 6 females). The experiment was a 4*2 factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design (CRD) with 3 replications. The chickens had free access to each of the carbohydrates (broken rice, cassava root, sweet potato tuber, and banana fruit) and each of two proteins feeds (soybean meal and duckweed). There were significant interactions for all measurements of feed intake and live weight change, which showed contrasting results according to whether the protein source was soybean meal or duckweed. On soybean meal the chickens gained live weight on all the carbohydrate sources, with the best result on broken rice, followed by sweet potato root and with the poorest growth on cassava root and banana fruit (Figure 1). In contrast, with duckweed as the protein source, the chickens lost weight on all the carbohydrate feeds other than broken rice for which the growth rate was the same as with soybean. The reason for the differences in live weight change appear to have been caused by differences in feed intake as live weight gain was linearly related (R² = 0.7; P<0.001) with DM intake (Figure 2).

Key words: Cafeteria, green forage, duckweed, water spinach, taro leaves, carbohydrate feeds, cassava root, sweet potato tuber, banana fruit

Figure 1: Average weight gain of  local chickens fed different energy and protein feeds	Figure 2: Relationship between DM intake and live weight gain of chickens fed different sources of carbohydrate and protein