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Chapter

Use of Cassava in Chicken Diet

Tagesse Tadesse

Abstract

Chicken production has negatively been affected by continuous increment in

conventional energy-source feed ingredients due to the competition between human
beings and animals globally. Cereal crops, their byproducts, and leftovers from
households are among the frequently accessible sources of chicken feed. Poultry
industry has been affected by a shortage and increasing cost of conventional feed
resources. Various non-conventional feed resources have been reported to solve this
problem. Tuber and root crops are among the alternative feed resources and can be
substituted at varying quantities in chickens’ diets. Among the root and tuber crops
that can be included in the diet of chickens is cassava. The tuber of cassava can be cut
into chunks, dried, milled, or pelletized and added to the diet of chickens. It can also
be added to the diet of broilers, and it can substitute 50% of the maize in their diet
without negatively impacting their performance. Adding 40% cassava flour or 20%
cassava peel meal to the diet of layer chickens is also beneficial for their ability to lay
eggs. Generally, different parts of cassava can be included at different amounts in the
diets of chickens.

Keywords: cassava, chicken, feed intake, non-conventional feed, substitution

1. Introduction

African chicken production survives by scavenging and, other than the occasional
feeding of household garbage to the chickens and under other circumstances, with
the addition of grain to the feed. Due to low input levels and numerous issues with
village chicken production, the entire standard of chicken production in developing
nations like Ethiopia is primarily of the scavenging type and is typically inefficient
[1]. Chickens are a simple way to generate family income and opportunities for job
creation with relatively low resource investment and readily available family labor
because of their tendency to adapt to most regions of the world, their rapid growth
rate, their quick breeding rate compared to most other livestock, or the short gen-
eration span. When compared to other domestic animals, chicken is an incredible
resource for chicken farming and for household usage as a protein-rich source of
animal food for human consumption [2]. The production of chicken is challenged by
various factors. The major problem that affects the poultry industries in the tropics
is the increasing cost of feed ingredients, such as maize and soya bean meal. The
seasonal instability in the supply of conventional feed ingredients requires alternative
energy sources to be explored to ensure optimum performance of the chickens [3].

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Cassava - Recent Updates on Food, Feed and Industry

The main challenges for livestock production in the tropics and sub-tropical coun-
tries are inadequate feed sources and low quality of existing feed resources [4]. Due to
insufficient production of conventional feedstuffs for livestock feeding, the majority
of developing nations struggles to provide their animals with enough to feed. Both
humans and animals compete over the few amounts of concentrated feedstuffs they
produce each year. As a result, the production of livestock in these nations frequently
faces a significant problem due to the lack of feed resources [5]. The use of non-con-
ventional feedstuffs in animal feeding can help to solve this problem. In this regard,
alternative feed ingredients have been used in animal feeding, including cassava
root meal [6, 7] and sweet potato meal [8–12]. The use of cassava as an alternative to
conventional energy feed stuffs like maize could help to reduce feed costs [13].

2. Cassava (Manihot esculenta) in chicken diet

Crops with starchy roots, tubers, rhizomes, corms, or stems are known as root
and tuber crops. They are mostly utilized to make animal feed, human food (either
raw or processed), starch, alcohol, and fermented drinks like beer. A root is an organ
that grows from the root tissue and is a small, frequently enlarged storage organ with
hairy stalks. A root is also a tuber. It grows from a rhizome, or a prolonged stem tissue;
therefore, it is probably an enlarged storage organ. Consequently, a plant may also be
a root, whereas a tuber is a root crop. For instance, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams
are edible tubers, whereas carrots and cassava are root vegetables. There are differ-
ences between the growth patterns of edible tubers and edible root crops or plants.
Since the plant’s edible tubers and root vegetables are what fuel its above-ground
growth, they are rich in starchy nutrients. While most vegetables grow above ground,
root and tuber vegetables are the components of the plant that grow below the soil or
on the soil surface. Rhizomes that grow underground can run parallel to or just below
the soil’s surface and can also run horizontally. Simply, a swelling portion of one of
these rhizomes makes up the tuber. It may be possible to extract nutrients from these
bloated chunks. In order for the plants to create healthy new growth in the spring,
they want to store nutrients for them [14].
Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is grown for its underground starchy tuberous roots
in tropical and subtropical regions. Over 800 million people worldwide eat mostly
cassava roots, commonly known as cassava tubers [15]. Cassava roots are low in
protein but abundant in calories because they are mostly constituted of starch and
soluble carbohydrates. It is anticipated that more than 60% of the cassava grown in
Africa will be consumed, with the other third being used to make secondary prod-
ucts [16]. The rising and expensive cost of feed ingredients has been a hindrance to
global chicken production for many years. The majority of the time, different cereal
crops are used as a conventional feed source for chickens. The competition between
human and animal food and feed, as well as the use of these components in other
industries, may be to blame for the ongoing increase in these feed ingredients. As a
result, a substitute for the conventional energy and protein elements in chicken feed
must be affordable and easily accessible and have an adequate nutritious composition
and should have no discernible impact on chickens. Accordingly, Cassava (Manihot
esculenta) is one such alternative. A common root tuber known as cassava is high in
calcium, vitamins B and C, vital minerals, and carbohydrates, making it a viable sub-
stitute for maize in the diets of chickens. Cassava’s low protein content, imbalanced
amino acid profile, dustiness, and presence of anti-nutritional elements, however,
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limit its utilization in chicken diets. However, these flaws can be solved through
proper processing and the inclusion of feed additives in the diet [17].
Different parts of cassava can be supplemented into diets of chickens. As a result,
cassava tubers can be consumed boiled, mashed, deep-fried, and so on, and there are
many food products based on cassava such as tapioca (cassava starch), a worldwide
food ingredient; fufu (cassava flour boiled in water); and garri (fermented cassava
mash), the two last popular foods in West and Central Africa [18]. The basic cas-
sava products used in animal feeding are chips and pellets, which can partially or
completely substitute the cereal grain in poultry feed [19]. The finger-like leaves,
which are consumed as vegetables or used as animal feed, as well as different
byproducts from the cassava processing industries, such as pomace and peels from
starch, ethanol, and cassava food production, which can be used as livestock feed, are
examples of other cassava products. Cassava flour, which should not be consumed
by humans, can be used to make livestock feed [20]. Livestock feeding accounts for
more than a third of the cassava crop’s production [21]. Before being powdered or
pelletized for use in commercial livestock feed, cassava tubers are first cut into slices
and dried. Cassava chips can be made using basic household or village procedures as
well as on a big, mechanized scale, and the processes utilized at various sizes of chip
and pellet manufacturing are connected. The amount of cassava that needs to be
processed, the cost of labor and capital, as well as the accessibility of relatively cheap
energy, all influence the technology that is selected [22]. The availability of a better
source of protein and the inclusion of enough methionine in the diet to meet both
body requirements and cyanide detoxification are two factors that will determine
whether utilizing cassava powder as a maize alternative in poultry feed is feasible
[23]. While attempts have been made to reduce the dirtiness with the addition of oil
and supplementation with suitable amounts of methionine and lysine amino acids, it
has been beneficially observed that cassava root meal can replace up to 30% of maize
in a broiler ration [24]. In a layer’s diet, cassava root meal can completely replace
maize [25]. Compared to chicken-fed rations with cassava chips or maize, broiler
chicken-fed rations containing cassava pellets exhibited improved feed consumption
[26]. For growing Japanese quail, about 35% cassava meal-based ration is suggested
[27]. Cockerel starter birds can tolerate only about 28% level of cassava sievate in
their ration [28]. Cassava root sievate and wet maize milling waste [29] can success-
fully replace maize by up to 35% without impacting the growth and feed utilization of
finisher broilers.
The majority of research findings demonstrates that adding cassava to chickens’
diets results in attractive responses in their behavior. For instance, substituting a 4:1
mixture of cassava root meal and leaves for maize in the diet of chickens can lower
feed costs without affecting the layers’ ability to gain weight or produce eggs [30].
Feeding broilers cassava chips supplemented with Moringa oleifera leaf meal at levels
of 5 and 10% showed that cassava chips replacing maize at levels of 55.56% and
83.33%, respectively, in the diets had no negative effects on production and blood
parameters [31]. Depending on dry matter consumption and growth performance of
broilers, cassava root chips can completely substitute maize grain in broiler rations as
an energy feed source [32]. On the other hand, based on the results of yields of major
edible meat parameters, cassava root chips could replace maize grain by less than 50%
in broilers diet, and 50% cassava root chips or 5% Moringa olifera meal, or a mixture
of both can successfully be used in the ration of layers, substituting maize grain and
soybean meal. The final body weight gain, total body weight gain, and daily body
weight gain of broiler chickens were enhanced by substitution of noug seed cake with
3
Cassava - Recent Updates on Food, Feed and Industry

cassava leaf meal at a 4% substitution level. Thus, cassava leaves can be a good protein
source to substitute the expensive Noug seed cake in the broiler ration [33].

3. Limitations on using cassava meal

The physical properties of cassava root meal, such as dustiness, poor pelleting
quality, and poor pigmentation, tend to also limit the use of cassava as a feed ingredi-
ent in animal diets, in addition to the antinutritional factors and nutrient deficiencies
inherent in raw and unprocessed cassava root. It has been noted that these physical
restrictions, particularly in poultry, can lower feed intake and have an impact on body
weight gain and feed conversion ratio. Animals fed a diet based on cassava that does
not contain oil or that is fed as mash have also been shown to exhibit crop impaction
and respiratory system irritation [34].
A cassava-based diet’s dustiness is typically correlated with the form in which the
feed is given to the animal. High levels of cassava meal in mash feed often produce
dusty feed. Through proper pelleting, dustiness problems in cassava-based mash diets
might be resolved, which would increase feed consumption and poultry performance.
Pelletizing a cassava-based diet produces a diet that is denser, more homogeneous,
and less dusty [35]. Diets based on cassava are about one-third less bulky after pellet-
ing, which solves the dustiness problem. However, methods like the addition of oil or
molasses can be used to address difficulties with dustiness in unpelleted chicken feed
on farms without pelleting machinery.
To reduce dustiness, wet mashed feed can also be given to the birds; however,
moist mashed feed should not be kept for an extended period of time to prevent
contamination and deterioration. Lack of pigmentation is a further physical char-
acteristic that restricts the use of cassava as a feed element for animals, particularly
poultry. The color of cassava root meal is white (it does not have any pigmentation).
It has been noted that feeding layers and broilers large amounts of cassava root meal
causes pale meat and egg yolks, respectively. Due of minimal consumer appeal, it has
been stated that these eggs and chicken flesh are sold for low prices.
When using a lot of cassava meal, the product quality should be improved by
adding leaf meal or other pigmenting agents to the diet. Cassava root meal’s lack of
pigmentation can be avoided by adding at least 30–50 g of leaf meal per kg of poultry
food. Leaf meals including those from young grass, ipil-ipil (leucaena) leaves, sweet
potato leaves, and cassava leaves have been shown to be successful [35].

4. Methods to raise the nutritional value of cassava

Various processing techniques have been employed for many years to improve the
nutritional content of cassava for use by humans and fowl. All of these techniques
aim to remove different ANFs that are present in raw cassava, including hydrogen
cyanide, phytate, saponin, and alkaloids [36]. These processing techniques have
also been utilized to address physical issues like dustiness and a lack of pigmentation
that tend to decrease performance and product quality and raise mortality when
unprocessed cassava is used as a food or feed ingredient, as well as nutrient shortages.
There are two types of cassava processing techniques: traditional [37] and modern
[38]. Traditional cassava processing techniques include drying; boiling; parboiling/
cooking; steaming; frying; roasting; addition of oil, molasses, and leaf meal; and
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110309

utilization of natural fermentation processes in order to improve the nutritional com-

position and decrease the anti-nutrient content. HCN losses from these procedures
range from 25 to 98% [39]. The addition of feed additives, such as nutrient supple-
ments with amino acids, vitamins, and minerals; the addition of pigmentation agents;
pelleting; the addition of synthetic enzymes; the microbial fermentation of cassava
roots; and the genetic modification of the cassava plant are examples of contemporary
methods of cassava processing [40].

5. Conclusion

Feed resources for chickens mainly come from activities directed toward human
food production. The potential sources of feed for chicken production are mainly
cereal crops and their byproducts. Shortage of conventional feed resources and con-
tinuous increment in its cost have been challenging chicken production in the tropics.
Utilization of alternative feed resources is mandatory to overcome this challenge
in the poultry sector. Root and tuber crops can be added in chicken diets. Cassava
is among the root crops and can be included in chickens’ ration. Thus, the tuber of
cassava can be included in broilers diet and substitute up to 50% maize in the ration
without harming the performances of both broiler and layer chickens. The use of cas-
sava in chicken diet is limited by the presence of some anti nutritional factors. These
factors can be reduced by different methods. In conclusion, cassava can be included in
chickens’ diet without causing negative impact on the performances of chickens.

Author details

Tagesse Tadesse
Department of Animal Science, College of Agricultural Sciences, Wachemo
University, Hossana, Ethiopia

*Address all correspondence to: tagessetadesse76@gmail.com

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original work is properly cited.
5
Cassava - Recent Updates on Food, Feed and Industry

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