Blend of oil palm slurry and rice bran as feed ingredient for broiler chickens

A 6-week feeding trial was conducted to assess the effect of four types of processed oil palm slurry (OPS) using rice bran (RTB) as an absorbent, hereafter referred to as RIBROPS, to partially replace maize on the growth performance of broiler chicks. Six hundred 14-day-old commercial broiler chicks were randomly allocated to one of the five dietary treatments. The dietary treatments consisted of the control diet, which contained maize as the main energy source, and four other diets each of which contained a fixed amount of 100 g of one of the four types of RIBROPS kg(-1). The experimental diets were formulated to be both isoproteic and isoenergetic. Feed and water were provided ad libitum for a period of 6 weeks. The dietary treatments did not have significant impact on feed intake (r=-0.48), body weight gain (r=0.42) and feed conversion efficiency (r=-0.40). Carcass yields were similar. There were no health-related problems attributable to the dietary treatments. Mortality was unaffected by the dietary treatments. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.