The nutritive value of cocoa bean shell for broilers and Pekin ducks

S. W. Yeong, F. Lim and A. Azizah

Abstract

Two trials with broilers and one with Pekin ducks were carried out to study the feeding value of cocoa bean shell (CBS) for growing chicken and duck. In all the trials, CBS was included at 5, 10, 15 and 20% of the diets either in the finisher diet alone or in both the starter and finisher diets. Results from the three trials showed a general trend of decrease in feed consumption and body weight gain with increase of dietary CBS levels. Per cent mortality increased with the increased inclusion of CBS. At the 20% dietary CBS level, the percent mortality were 70% and 83.7% for chicken and duck, respectively. The mortality was due to the presence of 7.99% of theobromine in CBS which caused intestinal lesion in the distal part of the digestive tract. It was also observed that mortality and adverse effect were less serious if the feeding of CBS-based diets were started only at finishing period. Autoclaving CBS did not change its toxic effect on bird growth.

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