Chemical composition and nutrient digestibility of umucass 36 cassava root meal by indigenous grower turkeys

Abstract

This trial was carried out to evaluate the proximate composition and nutrient digestibility of Umucass 36 cassava root meal, generally known as ‘gari’ in indigenous grower turkey diets under a warm humid tropical condition. A hundred and thirty-five (135) turkey poults were randomly allocated to five (5) treatment diets, with each dietary group having 27 poults that were replicated thrice (9 birds/replicate). The birds were fed and watered ad-libitum for a period of 16 weeks. Two birds per replicate were moved into the metabolic cage by the 14/15th week, thereafter both the feed and the feacal collected were appropriately evaluated. The results showed that Umucass 36 cassava root meal is rich in dietary nutrients but when added to the diets of turkey, it depresses nutrient utilization which in-turn negatively affected the turkey’s growth. The results of the nutrient digestibility showed that all the parameters considered were significantly (P<0.05) influenced, only with the exception of the dry matter. The final weights was depressed from 2316.67 (control/T1) to 1850.00 (T5). The implication of this result is that ‘gari’ should not be substituted for maize beyond 50%. So, 50% substitution level is therefore recommended.