Effects of dietary supplementation levels of coconut oil in crossbred Noi chicken on nutrient intake, growth performance, carcass values

Abstract

A study of effects of coconut oil supplementation in diets of Noi crossbred chicken on growth and meat production was done at an experimental animal farm in Binh Thuy district and Department of Animal Science, Can Tho University of Vietnam. It was a completely randomized design with five treatments and three replicates on 150 Noi crossbred chicken at 28 days of age, body weight average of 296 ± 3.04 g/bird. There were 10 chicken per each experimental unit with the same body weight. The treatments were coconut oil (CO) supplementation at 5 different levels of 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8% of the concentrate basal diets (CO0, CO2, CO4, CO6 and CO8). The results showed that when supplementing CO in the diets decreased the intakes of DM, OM and CP, while EE and ME consumptions of birds significantly increased (P<0.05). The highest daily weight gain was found for the CO6 treatment. Carcass, breast meat and thigh meat weights in the diets supplemented CO were significantly higher (P<0.05) compared to those in the CO0 one.

It was concluded that coconut oil could be used as energy supplement source in the diets for growing Noi crossbred chicken. At the level of 6% coconut oil supplementation in the basal concentrate diet of the chicken improved growth performance and carcass value.