Abstract 227

Kadirvel,-R; Natanam,-R; Udayasurian,-K

Dep. Animal Nutrition, Madras Veterinary College, Madras-600 007, India.

Poultry-Science. 1986, 65: 12, 2363-2365; 9 ref.

In 2 feeding experiments day-old chicks were fed up to 4 or 5 weeks old to assess the feeding value of oil-extracted kapok seed (Ceiba pentandra) containing 28.6% crude protein and 8.59% ether extract in a chick mash. In the first experiment, the birds on the basal diet gained 265.9 g at 4 weeks old, but inclusion of kapok cake at 10% in the chick mash reduced weight gain to 187.4 g. In the second experiment, the chicks on the basal diet gained 308.3 g at 5 weeks, whereas the chicks receiving kapok cake gained only 289.6 g. Kapok cake at 20, 30 and 40% and kapok oil at 2% are highly toxic; supplementing the extracted kapok cake diet with methionine, lysine and vitamins helped to improve the survival of chicks but not growth rate.