Abstract
This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of differ-ent vegetable protein sources and lighting programs on the per-formance of broilers. A randomized complete design (RCBD) was used with a total of 270 day-old broiler chicks which were randomly assigned to nine treatment groups with five replicates (6 birds per replicate) into 45 pens. From days 3 to 49, equal numbers of chicks were exposed to the experimental treat-ments in a 3×3 factorial arrangement of three different vegeta-ble protein sources and three different lighting programs. The three different protein sources were Diet 1- soybean meal (SBM), Diet 2- groundnut meal (GNM) and Diet 3- sesame meal (SSM) at 25 % for starter and 20% for grower ration, and three different light regimes were L1-continuous light 23h Light (L):1h Dark (D) control, L2- non-intermittent restricted light 8hL:16hD, and L3- intermittent light 1hL:2hD throughout 24 h. Perfor-mances were measured and calculated on weekly basis. On day 49, two birds from each replicate per treatment were randomly sacrificed to determine the crude protein (CP) and crude fat (CF) contents of breast, thigh and drumstick meats. Significant (P<0.05) effect on cumulative feed intake, body weight and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were noted among treatments. The treatment 9 (SSM + 1hL:2hD) had highest feed intake, body weight and narrowest FCR when compared to other treatments. No significant treatment (P<0.05) effect on the CP contents of breast and thigh meats was noted. Moreover, the CF contents of breast and drumstick meats of all treatments did not differ significantly (P>0.05). According to the findings of this study, the combination treatment of sesame meal and intermittent lighting program is the most beneficial among all the treat-ments.