THE EFFECT OF DIETARY EARTHWORM LUMBRICUS RUBELLUS LEVELS ON PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKEN

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of four dietary levels of
raw earthworm and earthworm meal on performance of broiler chickens. These
experiments were employed a Completely Randomized Design with four treatments and five replications. In the first experiment, it was applied four levels of raw earthworm (0, 5, 10 and 15 percent), while in the second experiment, four levels of earthworm meal (0, 5, 10 and 15 percent) was examined. Each experiment used eighty one day old unsexed broiler chicks kept in twenty cages. In both experiments, feed and water were served ad libitum for five weeks. Results showed that increasing dietary levels of raw earthworm had a highly significant (P<0.01) effect on body-weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion. Dietary levels of earthworm meal had no significant (P>0.05) effect on body weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion. It was concluded that earthworm can be used as source of protein up to 15 percent in broiler chicken diet.