7 Amazing Uses for Palm Oil on Poultry Feed Recent Study Shows

Feeding Palm Oil On The Productive And Economic
Performance Of Broiler Chickens

The use of 7% palm oil slurry reduces broiler production’s feed cost compared to the control by approximately 17%.

This new feed source for broilers could be a high-cost solution for poultry feed in forested areas where the production of large quantities of palm oil related to the development of oil palm plantations releases large amounts of waste.

It seems necessary to determine the storage time and the different conservation methods of food containing at least 7% of palm oil sludge. Their content of water and fat, factors favorable to the oxidation are very high.

Palm offers its benefits not only in chicks but also in many others. To know more about palm oil uses, visit https://russalgear.com/palm.

Introduction

Poultry production in Cameroon suffers from high food costs that account for about 60-70% of production costs. To this end, it is urgent to look for new inexpensive, unconventional, and unmanaged sources of food such as exist in forest areas.

As part of the optimization of new poultry feed resources, our focus was on palm oil sludge, given its availability.

It is a residue of the clarification of palm oil in production units, of a greasy and yellowish nature, which is currently spilled in nature and is a source of pollution. 

Tests on the use of palm oil sludge in poultry feed are limited or non-existent in Cameroon.

However, the development of oil palm plantations in Cameroon’s forest zone leads to large quantities of palm oil: 8750 tons in the Center, and, consequently, enormous amounts of oil palm.

Wastes (oil sludge, fibers, palm kernel husks) with little or no value.

Maize or palm oil, which enter the rations of poultry as main energy sources and whose use is limited by their high demand for both food and feed, could finally be partly substituted by palm oil sludge. 

Therefore, the objective is to describe the effects of palm oil sludge in diets on dietary intake, weight gain, feed efficiency, carcass yield, and chickens’ flesh’s economic performance in the finishing phase.

Material and Method

Equipment used

A total of 384 (50% male and 50% female) 30-day-old chicks have experimented with.

These chicks received sanitary coverage in force in the area during the start-up phase; these are vaccinations against viral diseases such as Gumboro disease, pseudo avian plague, infectious bronchitis, and preventive treatments against coccidiosis.

Conduct of the test

The chicks randomly distributed in 12 boxes on the litter of wood chips received a watering at will and were subjected to 4 treatments corresponding to the rations containing 0.3, 5, and 7% of the palm oil sludge.

Each treatment included three repetitions of 32 chicks each (1/2 males and 1/2 females). The experimental rations were iso-protein (about 22% crude protein), with metabolizable energy levels ranging from 3051 to 3264 kcal/kg.

The rations’ chemical characteristics were calculated from the chemical composition of the raw materials and the chemical composition of the palm oil sludge.

Unmeasured lysine, methionine, calcium, and phosphorus values of the sludge.  Before starting the trial, a 3-day adaptation period during which chickens consumed test foods and drinking water was observed.

Feeding was done at will during periods of natural lighting during the test. Weekly weighings were adopted from the first day for chicks, feeds, and refusals.

Mortalities were recorded daily.  At the end of the trial, 4 randomly selected chickens (2 males and 2 females) in each replicate were slaughtered after 24 hours of fasting to determine carcass characteristics.

Emphasis was placed on abdominal fat, gizzard, liver, heart, plucked carcass, emptied carcass, and cooled carcass. All these parameters were expressed as a percentage of live weight.

Economic Analysis

The price of the kilogram of food has been determined from the price of raw materials available on the local market. The feed cost per kg live weight of chicken was estimated by multiplying the price of a kg of feed by the consumption index defined as the ratio of food consumed to weight gain.

Results on the Study

Chemical composition of palm oil sludge

The lipid content is higher than that of maize and quite close to that of palm oil, but its cellulose content is higher than that of maize; its dry matter content is shallow compared to that of maize.

Growth performance

The total weight gain increased from 1041 ± 24 g for the control diet to 1468 ± 100 g for the 7% palm oil sludge diet, with significantly higher values starting at 5% incorporation.

This difference in weight growth is related to a significant (p <0.05) dietary intake from 3% incorporation of palm oil sludge into the ration; regardless of the level of incorporation, the use of rations containing palm oil sludge results in a greater weight gain compared to the control.

Food efficiency

The chickens’ consumption indices fed the 5% and 7% palm oil sludge diets were significantly (p <0.05) better than those of the 0% and 3% rations containing chickens.

Food cost of production per kilogram of live weight

The food cost of producing one kilogram of live weight decreased progressively from the control diet to the ration containing 7% palm oil sludge, with significantly lower diet values containing 5% sludge.

Conclusion

 Incorporating 7% palm oil sludge into finishing broiler diets results in greater weight gain than the control. This new feed source significantly reduces the cost of food production.

Broiler chickens in the finishing phase (about 17%) could be exploited very successfully during periods when maize, which is the main energy source in poultry diets, is very expensive. It is also a way to preserve this cereal to reduce competition between humans and poultry for its use.

 However, the practical problems associated with the incorporation of this very water-rich residue remain. The preservation of foods containing a high percentage of oil sludge is difficult.

 It deviates imperatively to determine the time and the different conservation methods of the food containing at least 7% of palm oil mud in the perspective of avoiding serving.