Resumo

MIRANDA-LOPEZ, Silvio et al. Productive Parameters and Blood Chemistry in Broiler Chickens Fed With Three Dietary Levels of Cowpea Grain Meal (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) During Growth Phase.. Rev. Cient. (Maracaibo) [online]. 2007, vol.17, n.2, pp.150-160. ISSN 0798-2259.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of including 3 dietary levels of cowpea grain meal (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) (CGM) on productive parameters such as weight gain (WG), feed intake (FI), feed conversion (FC) and blood chemistry such as plasma concentrations of glucose (G), total proteins (TP), albumin (A) and alanine-amino-tranferase (ALT) of growing broiler chicks until 3 weeks of age. Five hundred male broiler chicks (Ross-Cobb) one day of age were randomly allocated into 4 groups of 125 each (G1= feed no CGM, G2= feed with 5% CGM, G3= feed with 10% de CGM and G4= feed with 15% CGM). Each group included 5 repetitions. All chicks were housed into 20 pens of 3 mt² keeping a density of 8.3 chicks/mt² during 21 d. Chicks from G1, G2, y G3 had better (P<0.05) WG, FI and FC than those from G4. Although, during the first week G4 had less (P<0.01) ALT (6.76 U.I./L) than G1(12.96 U.I./L), G2 (12.63 U.I./L) and G3 (15.48 U.I./L), no differences were observed later for G, TP, A y ALT. It is concluded that productive parameters such as WG, FI, and FC are satisfactorily maintained with 5 to 10% inclusion of CGM in balanced diets for growing broilers without significant modifications on blood chemistry, thus demonstrating the feasibility of including this legume grain as a vegetable protein source in commercial broiler diets.

Palavras-chave : Cowpea; Vigna unguiculata; broilers.