A REVIEW ON THE UTILIZATION OF PEARL MILLET AS FEED RESOURCE for BROILER CHICKENS

Abstract

The urgency of the world food problem has presented a challenge to nutritionist to investigate the possibilities of utilizing other potential energy sources like pearl millet, because, the major portion of the maize crop which is the conventional energy source is diverted for other purposes such as bio fuel, brewery and starch industries as well as human consumption. Pearl millet contains 11.5-12% crude protein, 8.0% crude fibre, 4.0% ether extract (EE), 8.9% ash and 2900 Kcal/kg metabolizable energy. Research findings have shown that pearl millet has been used in the diets of broilers with varying degress of success. In a study with broilers, pearl millet has been successfully included at up to 10 - 20% level without any adverse effect and resulted to increase size of the gizzard. Also, pearl millet could completely replace maize at 100%inclusion level as a dietary energy source without detrimental effect on performance attributes and carcass yield with concomitant reduction in feed cost .Pearl millet is also very much available particularly in the arid and semi-arid zones of the country. It can be concluded that pearl millet is a very good substitute for maize in poultry diets.