GROWTH INDICES AND SERUM PROFILE OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIFFERENT THERMALLY PROCESSED SOYABEAN (<Glycine max) BASED DIETS.

An evaluation of growth indices and serum profde of broiler chickens fed different thermally processed soyabean (Glycine max) based diets using 240 days-old Anak broilers that were randomly divided into four (4) experimental groups of three replicates each. Dietary treatments were as follows: Tl, T2, T3 and T4 representing extrusion (control), Cooking, toasting and roasting based groups at both starter and finisher phases and the diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous for both the starter (1- 35 days) and finisher phases (36- 63 days). Cooking and toasting presented significantly (P < 0.05) better Specific Growth Rate (SGR) and Growth Efficiency (GE) when compared to extrusion and roasting at the starter phase. Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) and Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) were significantly affected by dietary treatments (P > 0.05) at both the starter and finisher phases. Variations in urea, creatine, packed cell volume, cholesterol and haemoglobin were significant (P>0.5) among treatments, however cholesterol levels were lowest in cooking (T2) and roasting (4) groups. Cooking process was recognized to preserve nutrients more effectively in this study and therefore provides a more effective mechanism for the improvement in growth indices, PER, EER and reduction in serum cholesterol in broilers.