Impact of Germinated off Season Sorghum Dietary on Apparent Digestibility and Small Intestinal Histology of Broilers in Maroua Far North Cameroon
Ledang Tebou Narcisse *
Department of Agriculture, Livestock and By Products, National Advanced School of Engineering of Maroua, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 58, Maroua, Cameroon.
Tadondjou Tchingo Cyrille d’Alex
Department of Agriculture, Livestock and By Products, National Advanced School of Engineering of Maroua, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 58, Maroua, Cameroon.
Vondou Lazare
Department of Agriculture, Livestock and By Products, National Advanced School of Engineering of Maroua, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 58, Maroua, Cameroon.
Barzina Justin
Department of Agriculture, Livestock and By Products, National Advanced School of Engineering of Maroua, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 58, Maroua, Cameroon.
Ziebe Roland
Department of Agriculture, Livestock and By Products, National Advanced School of Engineering of Maroua, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 58, Maroua, Cameroon.
Abdou Bouba Armand
Department of Agriculture, Livestock and By Products, National Advanced School of Engineering of Maroua, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 58, Maroua, Cameroon.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
In order to find a solution to maize in the composition of poultry feed, a study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the substitution of maize by germinated off-season sorghum as an alternative energy source on nutrients digestibility and histological of small intestinal of broilers. To achieve this, 180 of the 1-day-old chicks of the "Cobb 500" strain with a live weight of 34g ± 3.26, were randomly divided into 9 batches corresponding to 3 treatments with 3 replicates of 20 subjects. The batches were subjected to one of 3 diets: 100% maize (R0), 50% maize and 50% germinated off-season sorghum (R1) and 100% germinated off-season sorghum (R2). To achieve these objectives at 18 and then at 35 days of age, a total of 36 broilers were used, i.e. 18 in the start-up phase at a rate of 6 subjects per treatment and 18 in the growth/finishing phase at a rate of 6 subjects per treatment and the droppings and feed from digestibility trials; measured apparent digestibility (Ad) for energy, protein, fiber, mineral matter and organic matter; histological studies of the small intestine were performed. Energy, organic matter, mineral matter, proteins and fibres were not significantly influenced by the experimental diets used at the 0.05% threshold for digestibility and the histological sections did not show any structural and morphological alterations. We can therefore conclude that maize can be substituted at 50% and 100% by germinated off-season sorghum without negatively impacting digestibility in broilers at the start, as well as in growth/finishing.
Keywords: Broilers, off-season sorghum, broiler, digestibility