Tropical Velvet Bean (Mucuna Utilis) Leaf Meal as Unconventional Protein Supplement in the Diet of Broiler Chicks

This study evaluated the performance of broiler chicks fed graded levels of Mucuna utilis leaf meal (MLM) with an aim to identify alternative low cost feed source that is readily available in the tropical environment. 180 day old broiler chicks of anak 2000 strain were procured, balanced for weight and randomly assigned to 4 different treatments. Each treatment consisted of 3 replicates and each replicate had 15 birds. The experimental diets were designated as T1, T2, T3 and T4 representing 0 %, 5 %, 10 % and 15% Mucuna utilis leaf meal respectively, with T1 serving as the control diet. The experimental diets were given ad libitum throughout the 49 days duration of the study. There was significant (P > 0.05) reduction in average final weight gain of birds in all the treatments compared with T1, which had the best result, followed by T2, T4 and T3. Inclusion of Mucuna utilis leaf meal significantly (P > 0.05) depressed average feed intake in broiler chicks across the treatment groups. High mortality and considerable number of paralyses was also observed in chicks in the 10 % (T3) and 15 % (T4) levels of inclusion of Mucuna utilis leaf meal especially in the starter phase. Results of this study suggests that livestock farmers should not include more than 5% of Mucuna utilis leaf meal in the diet of growing chicks since the performance and mortality observed beyond this level of inclusion is undesirable. It is also advisable to include Mucuna utilis leaf meal only at the finisher stage since age appears to influence the effect of the growth inhibitory factors associated with the plant.