Studies on feeding of Azolla meal on feed consumption performance of Kadaknath poultry

Abstract

The present investigation entitled “Studies on feeding of Azolla meal on feed consumption performance of Kadaknath poultry” was carried out to assess the effect of Azolla meal on Feed consumption and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) of Kadaknath poultry bird’s production. 192, Chicks of day old straight run commercial Kadaknath breed were procured from Government hatchery, Nagpur (Maharashtra). They were randomly and equally distributed into four treatment groups T1, T2, T3 and T4 with 48 numbers of chicks in each group. Azolla meal was added in experimental ration at different levels. The dietary treatments consisted of one basal control (T1), supplemented with 2.5% Azolla meal (T2), 5% Azolla meal (T3) and 7.5% Azolla meal (T4). The average weekly feed consumption of treatment mean T1, T2, T3 and T4 were 252.17, 256.95, 267.29 and 282.61 gm respectively. The average cumulative feed consumption at eighth weeks of age was recorded as 2017.41, 2055.64, 2138.33 and 2260.92 gm for T1, T2 T3 and T4 treatment groups respectively. The average weekly feed efficiency at eighth week of age were 3.98, 3.63, 3.28 and 3.11 in T1, T2, T3 and T4 treatment groups, respectively. The result therefore concludes that supplementation of 7.5 per cent dried Azolla meal was beneficial to improve feed efficiency of birds.