Evaluation of raw and detoxified rapeseed meal in broiler chicken diet

Abstract

In order to find out the feasibility of feeding rapeseed (Brassica napus) meal to commercial broiler chicken a trail has been conducted using raw and detoxified rapeseed meal. Deoiled rapeseed meal (DRSM) was included in diet on isocaloric and isonitrogenous basis at 14% level untreated and treated with copper sulphate at different levels viz. 0.1, 0.2, 0.3% and fed to a total of 200 day-old commercial broiler chickens from day 1 to 42days of age. This study revealed that, the body weight gain was significantly (P<0.05) higher in broiler fed with 0.3% CuSO4 treated DRSM diet compared to the soybean meal control group. There was no significant difference was observed in feed consumption during 0-42 days of age. 0.3% copper sulphate treated DRSM had significantly (P<0.05) better feed conversion. Economics of feeding of DRSM based diets indicated that 0.2 and 0.3% copper sulphate treated DRSM increased returns over feed cost than that of raw DRSM, 0.1% CuSO4 treated DRSM and control diets. It is concluded that 0.3% CuSO4 treated deoiled rapeseed meal at 14% level could be safely incorporated in broiler chicken diet.