International Journal of Agriculture and Earth Science Vol. 2 No.1 ISSN 2489-0081 2016 www.iiardpub.org IIARD – International Institute of Academic Research and Development Page 29 NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION OF COWPEA SHELL AS A SOURCE OF FIBRE IN THE DIETS OF BROILER CHICKENS 1 Maidala, A. and 2 Bello, I.B. 1 Department of Vocational and Technology Education, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Bauchi State 2 School of Undergraduate Studies, College of Education Azare Bauchi State aminumaidala@yahoo.com Abstract An experiment was conducted at the school of Undergraduate studies College of Education, Azare poultry research farm. 100 day old Anak 2000 broiler chicks were raised for 8 weeks of age (56 days). The birds were fed with diets containing cowpea shell as a source of fibre at 5 different levels at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. Each treatment was assigned 10 birds and each treatment was replicated twice, making a total of 20 birds per treatment, in a completely randomised design. Feed and water were supplied to the bird’s adlibitum. At the end of the experiment 2 birds per replicate was randomly selected and slaughtered for carcass characteristics. Result showed that the Daily Feed Intake (DFI), Daily Weight Gain (DWG), Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) and Feed Efficiency Ratio (FER) were not statistically affected at both starter and finisher phases (P>0.05). Carcass characteristics: live weight, slaughter weight, pluck weight and eviscerated weight were not significant (P>0.05) across the treatments. The cut of parts, organ and gut characteristics are not statistically significant (P>0.05) in all the treatments. It was recommended that cowpea shell can be used as a source of fibre in broiler chickens diet at up to 100% level of inclusion without effects on growth performance and carcass characteristics and reduction in the cost of production. Keywords: Broiler chickens, Cowpea shell, performance, carcass, Fibre, Introduction Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the eggs they produce, their meat, their feathers, or sometimes as pets. These birds are most typically members of the galliformes which includes chickens, quails and turkeys (Oluyemi and Robert, 2000). The population of developing countries has continued to increase resulting in increased demand for protein of animal sources. Nigeria has the highest population in Africa which is about 140 million, and there is also high maternal-child mortality due to under- nutrition (Sobayo et al., 2008). A large proportion of Nigerian populations are facing the problem of hunger and malnutrition as a result of inadequate protein in their diet. The contribution of animal protein in their diet is low. The inability of Nigeria to feed their teeming population with qualitative and quantitative food is a problem associated with high cost of animal protein accompanied with biological factors such as diseases and pests, social factors such as tradition, custom and ignorance, however poultry birds have been reported to bridge the gap within a shortest possible time due to their short generation interval, short gestation period and fast growth rate (Maidala and Istifanus, 2012). Several approaches are adopted to guarantee food security for people worldwide especially the use of farm by products in livestock production. Malnutrition problems is more pronounced in less developed nations (FAO, 2008) and this has always led to resurgence of interest in the sourcing of inexpensive alternative feed ingredients as replacement for the more expensive conventional ones in animal feed formulation. The impact of this is to increase the