Effects of Napier Pakchong 1 grass, Para grass, Purple guinea grass and Atratum grass on feed intake and nutrients digestibility in Tapao Kaew chicken

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of using Napier Pakchong 1 grass, Para grass, Purple guinea grass, and Atratum grass at 30 percent in Tapao Kaew chickens on feed intake and nutrients digestibility. The experiment was used 32 Tapao Kaew chickens, 14±0.5 weeks of chicken age and 1.4±1 kg of body weight. There was assigned to 2x4 factorial in Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The treatment as follows; factor A was sex (male and female), and factor B was supplementation of 1) Napier Pakchong 1 grass, 2) Para grass, 3) Purple guinea grass, and 4) Atratum grass. The study was focus on nutrients digestibility of 2 sex and 4 type of grass. The chickens were kept in individual pen with size of 60x60x63 cm. and fed ad libitum. The experimental were use 21 days of total and lasted 7 days for adaptation 14 days for running trail and then the last of each day for collected feces to analyzed chemical composition. The result found that feed intake was similar of all treatment (p>0.05). However, the chickens supplemented with Atratum grass was highly significant on nutrients digestibility when compare with other groups (p<0.05).