Research article

Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) Pods as a Local Alternative to Feed Poultry

*¹Al-soqeer A and ²Fahmy O

¹Department of Plant Production and Protection, College of Agricultural and Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box 6622, Qassim University, 51452, KSA

²Department of Animal Production and Breeding, College of Agricultural and Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box 6622, Qassim University, 51452, KSA

*Corresponding author E-mail: wasmy84@hotmail.com

Accepted 12 October 2014

Abstract

This research was aimed to investigate the possibility of using Prosopis juliflora pods as a fodder source for poultry. The study have shown that the inclusion of ground prosopis pods in a broiler diet added some positive effects on broiler performance such as improving carcasses weight and reducing the weights of the inedible parts. The obtained results encourage repeating the experiment with increasing the percentage of prosopis supplementation to the broiler diets with using some treatments on the prosopis pods to reduce the undesirable effects of the antinutritional factors in the pods and to increase the percentage of the essential amino acids present in the pods Lysine, Methionine, Argenine, Histadine, Isoleucine, Leucine and Phenylealanine to the limits recommended for broilers by NRC 1990.

Keywords: Prosopis juliflora, Feed Poultry, antinutritional factors