Effect of Different Feed Restriction Regimes During the Starter Stage on Productivity and Carcass Characteristics of Male and Female Ross 308 Broiler Chickens


Authors

  • D.J. Novel Department of Animal Production, University of Limpopo, P Bag X1106, Sovenga 0727, South Africa
  • J.W. Ngambi Department of Animal Production, University of Limpopo, P Bag X1106, Sovenga 0727, South Africa
  • D. Norris Department of Animal Production, University of Limpopo, P Bag X1106, Sovenga 0727, South Africa
  • C.A. Mbajiorgu Department of Animal Production, University of Limpopo, P Bag X1106, Sovenga 0727, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3923/ijps.2009.35.39

Keywords:

Carcass characteristics, fat deposition, productivity, ross 308 broiler chickens, starter stage feed restriction

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different feed restriction regimes during the starter stage (14-21 days) on productivity and carcass characteristics of male and female Ross 308 chickens. A 3 (feeding levels: ad-libitum intake, 50% ad-libitum intake and 75% ad-libitum intake) x 2 (male and female chickens) factorial arrangement in a complete randomized design was used. Feed restriction affected (p<0.05) live weight of chickens at the age of 21 days and male chickens were heavier (p<0.05) than females at the same age. Chickens on 75% ad libitum feeding attained complete compensation in live weight at 42 days of age while those on 50% ad libitum feeding did not. However, male chickens attained higher (p<0.05) live weights than female chickens at 42 days of age. It is suggested that 75% ad libitum restriction feeding during the starter stage from 14 up to 21 days of age may offer some economic advantage over ad-libitum feeding regimen, mainly by enhancing feed utilization. It may, therefore, be a useful nutritional strategy to reduce the cost of commercial starter grain based-diets.

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Published

2008-12-15

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2009)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

How to Cite

Novel, D., Ngambi, J., Norris, D., & Mbajiorgu, C. (2008). Effect of Different Feed Restriction Regimes During the Starter Stage on Productivity and Carcass Characteristics of Male and Female Ross 308 Broiler Chickens. International Journal of Poultry Science, 8(1), 35–39. https://doi.org/10.3923/ijps.2009.35.39