A study on feeding hazelnut kernel oil meal as a protein source for broiler chickens

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of substituting different levels of hazelnut kernel oil meal (HKM) for soybean meal (SBM) in diets for broiler. A total of 450 one-day-old female Ross 308 broiler chicks were allocated randomly to three treatment groups of 150 birds each in a randomized design. Each treatment group consisted of five replicates each of 30 chicks. All diets (in mash form) were formulated to meet nutrient concentrations recommended for broilers. The experiment lasted for six weeks. In the experiment, an SBM control (SBM) diet was compared to two HKM diets, replacing 50 (50HKM) and 100% (HKM) of SBM protein, respectively. Body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio of broilers were adversely affected (P < 0.05) by the HKM diets at 42 days of age. Broilers fed 50HKM and HKM had growth performances similar (P > 0.05). The carcass yield and abdominal fat pads of birds fed diets with SBM were higher (P < 0.05) than those of chicks fed the 50HKM and HKM diets. The edible inner organ weight of chicks fed diets with HKM was the heaviest (P < 0.05). It is concluded that SBM cannot be replaced even up to 50% with HKM in commercial broiler diet.