ABSTRACT
This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of hot
pepper and corn gluten meal (CGM) on growth performance, carcass
traits, intestinal villi histo-morphometry and in broiler chicks reared for
42 days were evaluated. A total number of 180 unsexed one day-old Ross
308 broiler chicks were weighed individually, randomly allocated to six
dietary treatments of three replicates each. Chicks were fed ad libitum
during starter, grower and finisher stage. The experimental design
consists of the following groups; the first group and the second were fed
the basal diet containing 5% or 10% corn gluten meal without hot pepper
and both served as controls, respectively. The third and fourth groups
were fed the control diet (5% CGM) supplemented with 0.1 or with 0.2
% hot pepper, respectively. The fifth and sixth groups were fed on the
control diet(10% CGM) supplemented with 0.1 or with 0.2 % hot
pepper, respectively. The results obtained could be summarized as
follows: at 6 weeks of age, among the levels of dietary corn gluten meal,
control diet with (5% CGM) improved significantly (P < 0.05) live body
weight , body weight gain, feed conversion, dressing %, and abdominal
fat % compared to the control with (10% CGM) with no significantly
differences for feed intake, liver %, gizzard %, and heart %. Chicks fed
diets containing hot pepper (0.1% with 5% CGM), hot pepper (0.2% with
5% CGM) and hot pepper (0.2% with 10% CGM) recorded the heaviest
(P<0.01) body weight and body wight gain than hot pepper (0.1% and
10% CGM) and control (10% CGM), with no significant differences
between each other. The feed intake value , feed conversion , dressing %
, abdominal fat % for hot pepper diets were significantly (P < 0.01) less
than those of control diets (10% CGM).No significant differences were
observed in liver % , gizzard %, and heart % between broiler chicks fed
hot pepper diets and control diets. There were significant increments in
intestinal villi length associate with significant reduction in crypt depth
due to feeding hot pepper compared with two levels of corn gluten meal.
It could be concluded that, adding hot pepper into diets containing high
level of corn gluten meal (10%) improves broiler performance by
improving intestinal health, resulting from increased villi length, and
increasing absorptive surface of the small intestine.