Effect of dietary replacement of soybean meal with linseed meal on feed intake, growth performance and carcass quality of broilers.

To increase the chicken's productivity and performance it is imperative to exploit underutilized oil crops such as linseed meal as protein source. This study evaluated the effect of replacing soybean meal with graded levels of linseed meal on feed intake, growth performance and carcass parameters of broiler chickens. A total of 180 day-old Cobb500 broilers were distributed to five treatment diets in a completely randomized design replicated three times with 12 chicks each. Isocaloric and isonitrogenous treatment diets formulated were T1 (0%, diet with no linseed meal), T2 (25%), T3 (50%), T4 (75%) and T5 (100%, soybean meal in the diet was replaced by linseed meal). The feeding experiment lasted for 44 days. The total feed intake, mortality rate and feed conversion ratio (FCR) during starter phase were similar (P > 0.05) among treatments. High (P < 0.05) starter phase body weight was recorded for T3 compared to T1, T2, T4 and T5 treatments but T2, T4 and T5 had similar average daily gain. The feed intake, body weight change, FCR and mortality during finisher phase and entire period were similar (P > 0.05) among treatment groups. The weight of most carcasses were similar (P > 0.05) among treatment except the weight of kidney, heart, breast, liver and abdominal fat. Kidney weight for T1 and T3 were higher (P < 0.05) than for T2, T4 and T5. The weight of heart for T3 was higher than T2 and T5 while T1, T3 and T4 were similar (P > 0.05). High (P < 0.05) breast weight were observed for T3 than T2 and T4. Liver weight for T3 was greater (P < 0.05) than T2 and T5. The total feed cost decreased with increasing levels of linseed meal. High net return was obtained from T3 followed by T4 and T2. The results showed that although linseed meal can replace 100% soybean meal in the ration without detrimental effect on the health, replacement at 50% (T3) is recommended for better performance of broilers.