The present study was carried out at the experiment farm of faculty of agriculture, Ain Shams University. The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of inclusion of guar meal (G) as a partial or total replacement for soybean meal (SM) in broiler diet on production performance and carcass traits of Ross broiler chickens.
At 7 days of age, 125 unsexed broiler chicks (Ross 500) were divided into 5 treatments (25 birds each). Each treatment contained 5 replicates of 5 chicks each. The experimental treatments were: control diet (100% soybean meal, SM), T1 (87.5% SM+12.5% G), T2 (75%SM+25%G), T3 (50% SM+50% G) and T4 (100% G).
Results obtained could be summarized as follows:
1- Replacement SM with G in broiler chick diets had a significant effect on live body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio.
2- Chicks fed 100% G diets gave the lowest results in live body weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio.
3- Replacement SM with G in broiler chicks gave significant effect regarding slaughter parameters, carcass parts (%), digestive tract length (cm/100g BW), some bone traits and some blood parameters.
4- Broiler chicks fed diets containing different levels of G gave the lowest economic and relative efficiency values when compared with the control.
Generally, using guar meal as a replacement for soybean meal at the tested levels in this study may not be beneficial under practical conditions and further research is needed to determine a more accurate level of inclusion of guar meal for better performance and carcass characteristics.