Broilers fed with cayeno (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) flour

Abstract

This work was carried out in Villavicencio (Meta), with the purpose of studying the inclusion of different levels of flour of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (CAF) (0, 5, 8 and 12%) in diets for chickens fattening, partly replacing traditional use other foods, mainly meat meal and soybean meal. The statistical design used was a completely randomized with four treatments, three replications and 10 experimental units in each replication (4 x 3 x 10 = 120 birds). Was evaluated weight gain, consumption, alimentary conversion, protein biological value (BV), protein efficiency ratio (PER), digestibility of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and carcass yield. The biggest daily gain by bird (P<0.01) was observed in the treatment with 12% CAF, which was 63.8 g, while daily consumption was higher (P<0.01) in the diet with 8% 152 g, being the lowest level of 5% of CAF 119.6 g. The conversions were better (P<0.01) with 5 and 12% of H. rosa-sinensis (2.22 and 2.29 respectively). Was presented an increase of digestibility of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) as HCA levels were elevated in the diets. The lowest biological value (P<0.01) was observed in the diet in which no CAF (65.35%), while the carcass yield was greater (P<0.01) for treatment with 8% CAF in comparison to the other three treatments. It is concluded that CAF can be replaced in diets for broilers up to 12%, since it did not adversely affect the variables analyzed in this work, and was observed an improvement of them proportional to the levels of increase in this shrub. Is noteworthy that carcasses of birds fed CAF, presented a yellow coloration and better palatability compared with the control.