Replacing maize with sweet potato in diets for chicks

Abstract

1. Rhode Island Red chicks and chicks of the indigenous fowl of Nigeria were fed for ten weeks on diets of 227.5 g protein and 11.92 to 13.72 MJ ME/kg in which sweet potato was substituted for maize. 2. Replacing up to 344.3 g maize/kg with sweet potato did not significantly affect body weight, food intake, food conversion, nitrogen retention, mortality and relative weights of body parts at 10 weeks of age. 3. Whereas crude protein contents of liver, gizzard, heart, lung and breast were not significantly affected by the diets, fat contents were significantly decreased by the replacement of 344–3 g maize/kg with sweet potato.