Effect of different levels of watermelon rind on performance and blood biochemical parameters of broiler

An experiment was conducted in order to study the effects of watermelon rind on performance and biochemical blood indices of broiler chickens. A total of 160 one-day-old Ross 308 male broiler chicks were assigned to 16 pens for 4 experimental treatments, with 4 replications of 10 birds for each replication in a completely randomized design. The experiment consisted of 4 levels of dietary watermelon rinds (0, 1, 5 and 10 %). Dietary watermelon rind of 1% significantly increased mean body weight gain and for all growing periods significantly decreased feed conversion ratio (p>0.01) whereas, above 1% significantly increased feed conversion ratio (p>0.01). The relative weight of breast was significantly increased by 1 and 10% of dietary watermelon rind as it was highest between all treatments (p>0.05). Compared to other treatments, the highest relative weight of thigh was obtained with treatment containing 5%, also, the highest relative weight of pancreas was obtained with treatment containing 1% watermelon rind (p>0.05). The relative weight of abdominal fat and pancreas between treatments were higher for 1% watermelon rind in the diet and the relative weight of abdominal fat and pancreas between treatments were higher for diets containing 1% watermelon rind. The highest relative weight of gizzard, bile and liver were shown for 5 and 10% watermelon rind in the diet (p>0.05). While cholesterol, glucose and HDL were not affected by dietary treatments, ALB, TP and triglyceride were significantly reduced by 10% watermelon rind compared with 1 and 5% watermelon rind in the diet. In general, it was found that the use of watermelon rind up to 10% of the diet had no adverse effect on the performance of broiler chickens.