Introduction: An experiment was conducted to study the effects of watermelon rind on
performance and biochemical blood indices of broiler chickens.
Materials & Methods: A total of 160 one-day-old Ross 308 male broiler chicks were
assigned to 16 pens for 4 experimental treatments, with 4 replications of 10 birds for each
replication in a completely randomized design. The experiment consisted of 4 levels of
dietary watermelon rinds (0, 1, 5 and 10 %).
Results: Dietary watermelon rind of 1% significantly increased mean body weight gain
and for all growing periods significantly decreased feed conversion ratio (P>0.01)
whereas, above 1% significantly increased feed conversion ratio (P>0.01). The relative
weight of breast was significantly increased by 1 and 10% of dietary watermelon rind as
it was highest between all treatments (P>0.05). Compared to other treatments, the highest
relative weight of thigh was obtained with treatment containing 5%, also, the highest
relative weight of pancreas was obtained with treatment containing 1% watermelon rind
(P>0.05). The relative weight of abdominal fat and pancreas between treatments were
higher for 1% watermelon rind in the diet and the relative weight of abdominal fat and
pancreas between treatments were higher for diets containing 1% watermelon rind. The
highest relative weight of gizzard, bile and liver were shown for 5 and 10% watermelon
rind in the diet (P >0.05). While cholesterol, glucose and HDL were not affected by
dietary treatments, ALB, TP and triglyceride were significantly reduced by 10%
watermelon rind compared with 1 and 5% watermelon rind in the diet.
Conclusion: In general, it was found that the use of watermelon rind up to 10% of the
diet had no adverse effect on the performance of broiler chickens.