Effects of regular maize and different varieties of maize on the growth performance and carcass traits of broiler chickens

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of different varieties of certified maize and silo maize on the growth performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. One hundred and eighty (180) broiler chicks aged day old were used for the experiment. The experimental diets were Regular maize, (T1), Obatanpa Maize (T2), Abontem Maize (T3), Honampa Maize (T4), and a combination of certified maize varieties (T5). A Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was used for the experiment. Data collection was subjected to the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) model using Minitab Statistics (Version 20.3) and treatment means were compared using Tukey’s Pairwise Comparisons at a 5% significant level. Results of the study showed that birds fed with different varieties of certified maize and silo maize had no significant (P>0.05) effect on feed intake throughout the experiment. It was observed that feed conversion was high in birds fed with a T4 (Honampa) maize diet with T1 (regular maize) recording the least feed conversion in weeks 1 and 2. Breast weight, thigh weight, heart weight, duodenum weight, liver weight, gizzard weight, jejunum weight, ileum weight, and caeca weight observed in this study were not significantly (P>0.05) influenced by the different varieties of certified maize and silo maize inclusion in the diets of broilers. It can therefore be deduced that the various dietary treatments did not influence growth performance and carcass characteristics, except for live weight and weight of proventriculus. It is recommended to farmers that, feeding broilers with different varieties of maize has no significant effect on growth characteristics and so farmers can include any maize variety in the diets of broilers provided it is certified