Cassava Leaf Meal as a Replacement for Coconut Oil Meat in Broiler Diets

Eight feeding trials of 8 weeks duration were conducted to evaluate cassava leaf meal (CLM) as a replacement for coconut oil meal (COM) in tropical broiler diets. Diets containing 0, 10, 20, and 30% CLM that replaced COM were fed in Trials 1 and 2. Broiler performance was improved at the 10% CLM level. However, 20 and 30% levels of CLM resulted in depressions in gain, feed intake, and feed efficiency. Liver and spleen weights (percent of body weight) increased linearly with increasing levels of CLM. Carcass pigmentation values, as measured by Roche color fan, favored CLM-based diets. Results of Trial 3 showed that broilers can tolerate a level of 15% CLM without adversely affecting their growth. In Trials 4 and 5, supplementation of methionine improved the gains of birds fed the 20% CLM diet but had no beneficial effect when added to the basal diet. All response criteria were improved when 3% soybean oil was added to the basal or the 20% CLM diet in Trials 6 and 7. Further addition of methionine had no effect on the performance of birds fed the basal diet but improved growth of those fed the 20% CLM diet. In Trial 8, gains of broilers tended (P