RAW ROCK PHOSPHATE AS SUBSTITUTE FOR BONE MEAL IN DIETS OF BROILER CHICKENS

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the optimum replacement value of Raw Rock Phosphate (RRP) for bone meal in maize-cotton seed meal based diets. A total of 144 day old Aback 80 strain broiler chicks were used. Triplicate groups of 12 birds were randomly allotted on 4 diets containing 0, 1, 1.5 and 2% RRP which contributed 0,350,525 and 700 mg/kg Fluorine (F) levels in the diets. Results showed that when 1.5% RRP replaced equal amount of bone meal, weight *gain and growth rate were not significantly different (P>0.05) from birds fed 3% bone meal control diet (i.e. 0% RRP). Inclusion of 1% RRP (i.e. 350mg/kg F) in the diet supported the highest growth rate during 0-4 week period, but it was not significantly different from birds fed the control or 1.5% RRP diets... RRP at 2% (700mglkg F) caused significantly (P<0.05) poorer performance than the other treatment groups. Feed intake was not significantly affected by dietary treatments. It was concluded from this study that 1.5% RRP appear to represent the upper limit that could substitute equal amount of bone meal for adequate growth. This represented 50% replacement of bone meal by RRP in broiler diets. Broiler chicks appears to tolerate 525mglkg F* without detrimental effect on performance. However, 1% RRP (350mglkg F) seemed to have stimulatory effect on growth and promoted optimum feed efficiency up to 4 weeks of age.