International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition

Authors
Akpet Samuel Ori

Abstract
A total of eighty (80) day old Chi broiler chicks were allocated to four dietary treatments. Each treatment had two (2) replicates of ten (10) chicks per replicates in a complete randomized design (CRD) experiment which lasted for four weeks to investigate the effect of Desmodium triflorum leaf meal (DTLM) on the growth of broiler starter chicks. The control diet T₁ did not have any inclusion of DTLM, while the others were formulated with different level of DTLM inclusion. Daily feed intake increased progressively in all treatments, but there was no significant difference (p>0.05) among the treatments. There was no mortality recorded in the bird receiving 15% DTLM. The 5% level of DTLM inclusion was the most cost effective. It is recommended the DTLM at 15% level of inclusion has the potential to improve the growth and general health performance of chicks with no harmful effects.