Abstract

Akande TO, Odunsi AA, Akinwumi AO, Okunlola DO, Shittu MD and Afolabi OC

Carcass and histopathological changes in meat type chickens fed raw and processed castor bean cake (CBC) was investigated. CBC was subjected to either lye treatment, boiling for 20 minutes or anaerobic fermentation for 3 days. 150 one day old chicks Anak strain were randomly allotted to the five dietary treatments in triplicate lots of 10 chicks each in a completely randomised design. Diet 1 contained groundnut cake (GNC) as a protein sources while diets 2, 3, 4 and 5 contained differently treated CBC (raw, lye treated, fermented and boiled) replacing GNC at 10% rate of inclusion. There were no notable changes in proximate composition of raw and differently processed CBC except for the caloric values that decreased in processed CBC. Lye treatment removed about 60% of active toxin in castor, lectin while about 45% were removed via boiling and fermentation. Feed intake, body weight gained, feed conversion and carcass cut parts declined (P<0.05) from control, lye, boiled to fermented group. Birds on the untreated CBC have their liver and kidney significantly (P<0.05) enlarged while breast and thigh meat of birds on raw CBC declined sharply (P<0.01). Birds fed raw 100 g of CBC/kg diet also revealed loss of body mass and very prominent ill appearance with mortality. It is evident that the control groups and lye treated groups share some similarities in performance and carcass traits. In case of feed shortages, application of lye water on castor bean may be considered over boiling and fermentation in deactivating castor toxin.