A study was conducted to evaluate the potential of macadamia oil cake (MOC) as a replacement of soyabean oil cake (SOC) in Ross broiler diets. The 600 1-day-old male broiler chicks were randomly blocked into 30 equal-weight groups of 20 chicks. For each growth phase, basal and summit diets were blended in various proportions (100 % SOC and 0 % MOC, 75 % SOC and 25 % MOC, 50 % SOC and 50 % MOC, 25 % SOC and 75 % MOC, and 0 % SOC and 100 % MOC) to form five treatments. The diet with 100 % MOC had the least feed intake, final body weight and weight gain compared to other diets (P < 0.05). The increased abdominal fat of broilers fed more than 50 % levels of MOC could be due to high levels of lipids in MOC compared to soyabean oil cake. The feed conversion ratio did not differ significantly for most of the treatments (P > 0.05). It was concluded that the threshold of 25 % MOC can replace soybean oil cake meal in the diets of broiler provided that this alternative feed ingredient is readily available at an affordable cost.
Keywords: Carcass characteristics; European performance efficiency factor; Feed conversion ratio; Weight gain.