Growth Performance of Commercial Broilers as Affected by Inclusion of Leather Meal in Their Diets

Leather meal (LM), a byproduct of tannery industry, is a good source of cheap animal protein. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of incorporating LM during starter and finisher phases at varying levels on the growth performance and carcass parameters of commercial broilers. Two hundred chicks (10 day-old) were randomly distributed in 15 groups. Five diets containing 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4% LM were formulated. Each diet was fed to triplicate group of chicks. Carcass parameters were evaluated by slaughtering the birds at the end of 5th week. The lowest level of LM incorporation, body weight gain improved significantly (P<0.05) but at all other levels it was comparable with control. No significant difference in feed intake and feed conversion ratio was found among treatments. Inclusion of LM up to 4% in the diet of chicks did not affect the carcass parameters. Leather meal can be incorporated in the broiler diets up to 4% for economical broiler raising.