Effects of Fish Meal Inclusion in Broiler Diet on Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Koekoek Chicken

This study aimed to evaluate weight gain, carcass traits, and economic efficiency of Koekoek chickens fed fish meal as a partial replacement for soybean meal. The offal was obtained from Koka Fish Reservoir and Ellen Lake, and it was cooked, sun-dried, and included in the diets. A total of 120 chickens were randomly selected and assigned to four treatments (T1: 5 %, T2: 10 %, T3: 15 %, T4: 20 % fish meal) in a complete randomized design with two replications of 15 chicks each. The feeding trial was commenced for 48 days, followed by carcass evaluation of two chicks per replication. Results revealed that inclusion of fish meal diet had a significant effect on average daily weight gain and final weight (p < 0.0001) and FCR (p < 0.02) among treatments. Chickens fed on T1 and T2 consumed more daily dry matter (91.7 vs 89.8) and organic matter (18.7 vs 18.3) g/chick/day, respectively. Thus, chickens fed on T1 and T2 achieved a higher average daily weight gain, slaughter weight, drumstick, thigh, wing, total carcass weight, and total edible components. Chickens fed T3 and T4 diets exhibited lower average daily weight gain (16.2 g/day in both treatments) despite having the highest daily intakes of calcium (1.12 and 1.14 g/day) and phosphorus (0.65 and 0.79 g/day), respectively. Chickens fed on a T4 diet had the lowest intake (295.8 kcal/day) of metabolizable energy. The total edible offal and dressing % were not significantly (p > 0.05) affected among dietary treatments. Economically, the production cost incurred for T1 (325.8 Birr) was higher than that of T2 (307.1 Birr), while their relative net income was higher. Therefore, inclusion of fish meal up to 10 % (T2) in grower diets is recommended to optimize both performance and profitability of the broilers.