Document Type : Research Paper
Author
University of Mohaghegh Ardabili
Abstract
The effect of replacing soybean meal with irradiated or fermented cottonseed meal in the diet on the growth performance and intestinal morphology of broiler chickens was conducted by 384 male Ross chickens in a completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 8 replications. Experimental groups included replacing 0 and 50% of raw, irradiated, or fermented cottonseed meal with soybean meal. The results showed that broilers fed control diets and diets containing fermented cottonseed meal had better weight gain and lower feed conversion ratio than other birds (P ˂ 0.05). The Villus height and villus height to crypt depth ratio of duodenum and jejunum of broilers fed diets containing fermented cottonseed meal were significantly improved compared to raw cottonseed meal and irradiated cottonseed meal diets (P ˂ 0.05). The Villus height and villus height to crypt depth ratio of duodenum and jejunum of broilers fed diets containing irradiated cottonseed meal were significantly higher than raw cottonseed meal diet (P ˂ 0.05). Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the microbial fermentation method is a more effective solution to improve the nutritional value of cottonseed meal compared to the irradiation method. Also, the use of fermented cottonseed meal in the diet of broilers, in addition to improving growth performance indicators, improves the health of the gastrointestinal tract of birds.
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