Date stones in broiler's feeding

To evaluate date stones as dietary component for broilers, two trials were carried out. In the first trial, Tunisian Deglet date stones were used and in the second one, stones were the waste product of an Italian distillery. One-day-old Arbor Acres chickens were cage reared and fed for 6 weeks on 4 experimental diets, which were formulated to be isonitrogenous and isocaloric and differed in cereal component (maize or low tannin sorghum) and in inclusion level (0 or 10 %) of ground date stones. Birds ' performances were slightly different in the two trials, but overall results indicate that date stones are suitable for use in broiler's feeding under such conditions.