LAUSR

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of the incorporation of the smoked and shulled Faba bean into the diet on the zootechnical performance and carcass yield of the broiler chicken. Thus, 250 1-day-old Hubbard S15 chicks were equitably divided into four batches based on bean meal substitution rate (0, 20, 40, 60 and 96%) for 48 days. During the start-up and growth phases, the weight performances and the quantities of food ingested decreased proportionally with the increasing incorporation into Faba bean. The replacement of soybean meal proteins (at 44.76% MAT) with beans (at 25.06% MAT) resulted in a drop in performance during start-up and growth, while in the finishing phase the live weight of chickens fed 20% bean was statistically similar to that of the control group. For 20% and 40% substitution rates of beans, consumption indices were statistically similar to those in the control group, while carcass yield improved with increasing bean rate in the diet. These results show that the smoked and shelled bean incorporated into the ration at a rate of 20% gives good weight performances at a lower cost, it would nevertheless be interesting to incorporate it at higher levels while associating another protein source during first phases of breeding.