The Effects of Different Levels of Edible Potato (Solanum tubresum) Replacing Maize on Performance, Serum Metabolite and Immune System of Broiler Chicks

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different levels of potato replacing maize seed on performance characteristics and immunes system of broiler chicken in a completely randomized design. A total of 220 broiler chicks were randomly assigned to 5 treatment groups, with 4 replicates of 11 birds each. The chicks in the first group were fed basal diet (control), 2nd and 3rd groups were fed with the cooked pota-toes (25 and 35% replacing maize) and 4th and 5th groups were fed raw potatoes (25 and 35% replacing Maize). Two methods were used for preparing the potatoes. In the first method whole potatoes were cooked and then dried in the sun. In the second method the potatoes dried in the sun only. At the end of experiment one bird from each replicate was slaughtered for carcass analysis. There were no significant differences in feed intake, daily feed intake, daily weight gain, feed conversion rate, mortality percentage, carcass per-centage, liver percentage and breast, leg, thymus, spleen percentage, concentration of cholesterol, triglyc-eride, LDL and HDL between treatments (P > 0.05). Treatment did however have a significant effect on starter weight gain, starter FCR, pancreas percentage, small intestine, duodenum, jejunum and ileum weight, bursa of fabricius weight percentage and concentration of serum glucose of grower (P < 0.05). The use of potato in broiler diets decreased blood cholesterol and consequently reduced abdominal fat pad. Ac-cording to the results of this experiment, the level of 25% dried potato can replace maize seed without per-formance reduction of broilers. Replacing maize with potatoes caused a delay in growth rate at higher level.