Availability and quality of raw materials used in intensive poultry farming in Burkina Faso: The case of the city of Ouagadougou

Feed, especially quality feed, is one of the major challenges facing intensive peri-urban poultry farming in Burkina Faso. The aim of this study was to assess the availability and the quality of poultry feed in the city of Ouagadougou. Indeed, a survey was conducted at the main livestock markets in this city to inventory the raw materials (organic and mineral sources) that are marketed for poultry feeding. A total of 223 samples of organic raw materials and 22 mineral source samples were collected and analyzed by standard methods to determine their composition and qualities. The results generated indicate that, excluding rice bran, sesame seeds, and peanuts, most of feeds of organic basing inventoried and analyzed, contained acceptable crude cellulose (CC) levels, qualifying them as single concentrate feeds. Peanut, sesame and soybean seeds showed fairly good crude protein (CP) contents, ranging from 21.88 to 36.34%, with relatively high fat matter (FM) and CC contents of 17 to 37% and 13.7 to 24.08% respectively. As a result, the CC content of the expeller cake from unhusked cotton seeds exceeded the recommended value of 15%. Almost all the feeds of organic basing analyzed were richer in phosphorus than in calcium. Copper levels in cereal samples ranged from 3.53 to 10.3 ppm, and zinc levels from 4.53 to 23.5 ppm (mg/kg DM). Bran samples had copper and zinc contents ranging from 4.33 to 12.72 ppm and 20.66 to 74.94 ppm respectively. The husked-extracted cottonseed cake had higher copper and zinc contents than the unhusked expeller cottonseed cake. These results could serve as a referential for the animal feed industry by providing more detailed data on the qualities of the feed ingredients required for the manufacture of animal feed.