Research On Animal Production

     Current experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different levels of earthworm meal (Eisenia fetida) on performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters of broiler chickens. For this purpose, a completely randomized design with four levels of earthworm meal as treatments (0, 2%, 4% and 6%) using 96 day old Ross male chicks were performed. Each treatment consisted of 4 replicates with 6 chickens in each replicate. Chickens were fed the dietary treatments for 6 weeks. At the end of the experiment (d 42), two birds from each replicate were slaughtered. The results indicated that, dietary supplementation with 2% of earthworm meal is significantly increased body weight and feed intake (P<0.05), while it has no effect on feed conversion ratio. Breast percentage of chickens fed by 2,4 and 6% of earthworm meal was significantly higher than control group (P<0.05). Using earthworm meal was not effective on other carcass characteristics (carcass, thigh and abdominal fat percent). Chickens fed earthworm meal showed significantly lower LDL and higher HDL levels compared to control group (P<0.05). According to present results, supplementation of diets with 2% of earthworm meal increased final body weight, feed intake, breast percentage and HDL level and decreased LDL level in the blood of broiler chickens.