Effect of Vegetable Waste on Growth Performance and Hematology of Broiler Chicks

Abstract

Vegetable waste (spinach, potato, and cauliflower) is a rich and natural source of nutrients, potentially good for supplying minerals, essential amino acids, and antioxidants to the birds. Relatively, its cost very low, easily to accessible, easily process & pose little risk of illness. The aim of present study was to evaluate the effect of vegetable waste (VW) as feed supplement on growth performance and hematology of broiler chicks. For this purpose, a total of 200 (4 days old) vaccinated chicks were acquired from a commercial hatchery Multan which was acclimated for three weeks (21 days) on basal starter feed after that 25-day-old chicks with uniform body weight were allocated according to a CRD (completely randomized design) into four dietary treatments with three replicates of each contained 15 chicks in 12 pens. In dietary treatments, chicks were feed with basal feed (BF) and supplemented feed with vegetable waste (VW) of spinach, potato, and cauliflower. For this purpose, the dietary treatments included control treatment ( $T_1$ ) (100% BF+0% VW) and other dietary treatments ( $T_2$ ) (75% BF+25% VW), ( $T_3$ ) (50% BF+50% VW), and ( $T_4$ ) (25% BF+75% VW). The body weight, feed intake, food conversion ratio (FCR), and mortality were checked on weekly and daily basis. For hematology analysis, after the 1st experimental week (25-day-old chicks) and the last 5th experimental week (56-day-old chicks), the samples of blood were gathered from the wing’s veins of two birds from each treatment in random way. At the end of five weeks (35 days), birds with uniform average body weight were selected per treatment with three replicates (2 bird/replicate) and then were manually slaughtered according to the Halal method to analyze the weight of internal body organs of broilers by physical and statistical analysis (ANOVA). There was no significant effect ( $P>0.05$ ) on feed intake and FCR among all the dietary treatments. But in average, body weight and BWG were higher in treatment ( $T_2$ ) ( $P<0.01$ ) than all other dietary treatments ( $T_3$ ) and ( $T_4$ ) and control treatment ( $T_1$ ). The blood constituents in this study showed that broilers in control treatment ( $T_1$ ) and other dietary treatments ( $T_2$ ), ( $T_3$ ), and ( $T_4$ ) fed on different doses were significantly ( $P<0.01$ ) different from each other. The week 5 ( $W_5$ ) shows higher values of blood constituents ( $P<0.01$ ) than week 1 ( $W_1$ ). The carcass yield of the chicks fed on different doses showed that they were significantly different ( $P<0.01$ ) among the dietary treatments. The VW inclusion 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% had positive effect on blood constituents and carcass yield of the broiler chicks; they were significantly ( $P<0.01$ ) different among the treatments.