ANTI-NUTRIENT FACTORS, PERFORMANCE AND SERUM BIOCHEMISTRY OF BROILER CHICKS FED RAW AND FERMENTED ALCHORNEA CORDIFOLIA SEEDS

This study was carried out to determine some anti-nutrient factors in differently processed Christmas bush (Alchornea cordifolia) seeds and the effect of the processed seed meals on the performance and blood chemistry of broiler chicks fed from 1 to 35 day of age. Ground and fermented, and dehulled Christmas bush (CB) seed meals were analyzed for their anti-nutrient contents whereas ground and sieved (GS), ground-sieved and fermented (GSF) and non-sieved and fermented (NSF) seed meals were incorporated into starter broiler diets to replace 10% of maize, respectively. Fermented and dehulled CB seed meals contain 574.4 and 21.3mg/100g phytic acid, respectively. Cyanide was not identified in any of the meals. Dehulling eliminated the anthraquinone and tannin contents whereas fermentation only eliminated the tannin content. None of the methods completely eliminated the saponin, cardiac glycoside, flavonoid and alkaloid contents of the seed meals. With GS seed meal, broilers had lower average daily weight gain (P<0.05) than the control group. Feed intake decreased (P<0.05) but feed conversion ratio was not different when compared with control. Inclusion of GSF seed meal improved growth and feed intake when compared with the NSF seed meal and by day 35, growth and feed intake were comparable to those of the control birds. Blood plasma levels of alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphates and aspartate aminotransferase increased with GS CB seed meal diet, while serum calcium decreased. Neither raw nor fermented seed meals altered other measures of the blood chemistry. It is concluded that CB seeds contain toxic anti-nutrient compounds and that sieving out the hulls in the ground raw seed meal before fermentation improved the feeding value of the seeds for broilers at 10% replacement for maize.