Fish silage fortified poultry feed, its effect on body growth and meat quality of broiler chicks

A lowcost poultry feed was developed in the present investigation by utilizing fish silage generated from fish wastes. The liquefied silage which was initially prepared was dried with crushed maize (85:15). The dried fish silage was added at various ratio (5 %, 10 %, 15 %, Control) by replacing soybean meal. A starter and finisher feed was developed by incorporating various feed ingredients for feeding broiler chicks. It was observed in this study, that poultry feed which was prepared by replacing 5% fish silage showed better feed intake, body growth. The calculated FCR was found lower (1.66) in F1 feed (incorporating 5 % fish silage) when compared with other feeds. Better livability was exhibited by the chicks belonging to treatment groups, except for F2 group (97 %). Broiler Performance Efficiency Factor (BPEF) was highest for the F1 group when compared to other treatment groups. Weight of internal organs was checked which showed better growth for F1 group chicks. The meat quality of the poultry was studied by analyzing the meat pH, cooking loss, and sensory analysis. It was noted that the meat qualities did not have much variation between the treatment groups and control groups. The overall acceptability of the poultry meat belonging to the treatment groups during the sensory evaluation was equally accepted by the sensory panelists. Hence it can be inferred that the incorporation of fish silage doesn’t adversely affect the meat quality. Ensuring the repeatability of the experiment was a major challenge due to the inconsistent availability of bulk fish waste of the same species during the study (Challenges). Therefore, the poultry feed developed by incorporating fish wastes is an economical, time-saving, less labor-intensive, and highly beneficial approach to backyard poultry farmers.