Gut Morphology and Internal Organs of Broiler Birds Fed Graded Levels of Bio-Detheobrominized Cocoa Bean Shell (CBS) Based Diets

The effects of feeding graded levels of bio-detheobrominized cocoa bean shell (CBS) based diets were studied in broilers. Detheobromination by fungi fermentation (bio-detheobromination) reduces the methylxanthine contents cocoa by-products when fermented with Aspergillus niger. 196 day old broiler chicks were used for the experiment in an eight week feeding trial. There were seven dietary treatments containing graded levels of CBS from 0 to 30% at the expense of maize and soyabean meal. The control group had no CBS in its diet. Parameters measured include feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, carcass characteristics and gut morphology.

The results showed that total feed intake, average body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, weight of internal organs and gut morphology were significantly (p˂0.05) different across dietary treatments while the carcass characteristics did not show any significant (p>0.05) difference. The result of the study revealed that there was a significant reduction in the weight gain and feed efficiency of the broilers fed CBS based diets as the level of dietary CBS increased beyond 10%. However, the duodenum villous height and crypt depths increased significantly as the level of CBS increased in the diets. It therefore suggested that the amount/quantity of anti-nutrients such as theobromine and tannins in the CBS based diets beyond 10% inclusion locked up essential nutrients thereby impairing their bio-availability and overall growth of the birds. Thus, additional research is needed to find further techniques of processing CBS so that its anti-nutrients could be further reduced for optimium use in broiler nutrition.