Responses of Broiler Finisher Birds Fed Diets Containing Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batata) Root Meal

A twenty eight day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the replacement value of sweet potato root meal (SPRM) as replacement for maize on feed intake, body weight changes, carcass and organ weight characteristics of broiler finisher birds. SPRM was processed and used to replace maize at 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% dietary levels, represented as T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. Two hundred and forty (240) four weeks old Anak chicks were randomly divided into four experimental groups with three replicates of twenty birds per replicate were assigned the four diets in a completely randomized design. Data collected showed significant (p<0.05) differences in feed intake, body weight changes and feed conversion ratio. T2 animals produced the best performance, while T4 had the least values. Drumstick, back, neck, shanks, gizzard/proventriculus, heart and kidney of the experimental birds were similar (P>0.05) among the treatments. The dressed weight, dressing percentage, weights of the thigh, wings, breast muscle, and liver of the birds diets differed (p<0.05) significantly with T2 animals showing superiority over the animals on the other diets. This experiment revealed that sweet potato root meal can best replacement maize in diets of finisher broiler at 10% dietary level and should be recommended for broiler finisher production.