Sweet lupins as a feedstuff for broilers

An experiment was conducted to determine the feeding value of sweet white lupins (Lupinus albus variety Buttercup) for broilers up to 8 weeks of age. Two isocaloric and isonitrogenous starter (0 - 4 weeks) and finisher (4 - 8 weeks) diets were formulated with one containing no lupins and the other 400 g lupins/kg. Two hundred male and 200 female day-old broiler chickens of the Hubbard strain were used. Each pen consisted of 10 male or 10 female chickens. There were four replicates of each treatment giving 40 birds per treatment. The results showed that inclusion of up to 400 g/kg sweet lupins (containing less than 0,1 g/kg alkaloids) in the diet had no deleterious effects (P ≤0,05) on growth, feed efficiency or carcass characteristics when fed to broilers up to 8 weeks of age.