NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF FERMENTED ORANGE FRUIT PEEL IN POULTRY FEED

Conducted trials indicated that the nutritional evaluation of the potential of fermented SOFPM in the diets of pullet chicks, pullet growers and layers revealed among other things that:(i) Fermented sun-dried SOFPM contained phyto-nutrients: saponin, phytate, limonene, oxalate, flavonoid and tannin. (ii)Longer period of fermentation improved proximate nutrients (crude protein, nitrogen free extract and ME), while it decreased crude fibre and phyto-nutrient constituents of SOFPM. (iii) The proximate nutrients of fermented SOFPM are inferior to those of maize.(iv) Pullet chicks could attain average live weight of about 600g statistically comparable to the control group even at 30% substitution of maize by 24SOFPM or 48SOFPM. 24SOFPM was more cost effective than 48SOFPM. (v) 24SOFPM or 48SOFPM inclusion in the diets of pullet chicks did not produce any adverse sign on the health of pullet chicks thereby proving that the levels of phytonutrients present in the SOFPM are not toxic to pullet chicks. (vi) The inclusion of 24SOFPM or 48SOFPM in the diets of pullet chicks resulted in progressive reduction in feed cost/25kg, feed cost/bird.