Abstract:
Grass pea is a widely available grain legume that contains
a neurotoxin ODAP that has negative effects in humans and animals. Various
treatment methods were tested to select methods that are more effective.
Socking and cooking at 60, 75, 90oC and boiling temperatures
were found to be relatively effective. Diets containing grass pea prepared
using these methods along with diets that contained untreated grass pea
and a control that did not contain any grass pea were tested in a broiler
trial. Grass pea was included by replacing Noug (Guizotia abyssinica)
cake. Four hundred twenty unsexed one day old Cobb broiler chicks of similar
body weight were divided into seven groups of 60 and further randomly
sub-divided into three replicates of 20 chicks and placed in the experimental
pens were used. The study showed that total replacement of Noug cake by
boiled grass pea is possible without significantly reducing performance
(gain and feed efficiency). Cooking at 90oC can also be considered
pending economic evaluation since it was also similar results to the control
diet (p>0.05) in terms of feed efficiency. Performance of broilers on
the rations containing grass pea treated using the other methods seem
to have depressed performance too much. Comparison of performance during
the starter and finisher phases indicates that most of the depressing
effects seem to have occurred during the starter phase. There was no visible
sign of lathyrism in any of the treatment groups in this study. It is
suggested that further economic analysis of using the methods be conducted.
Further work on the possibility of using grass pea only during the finisher
phase following the apparent reduction of the negative impacts of feeding
grass pea at this stage observed in this study is also proposed.
D. Tadelle , Y. Alemu , D. Nigusie and K. J. Peters , 2003. Evaluation of Processing Methods on the Feeding Value
of Grass Pea to Broilers. International Journal of Poultry Science, 2: 120-127.
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