Effect of Different Litter Materials on Behavior, Stress and incidence of Mortality and Morbidity rate on Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The goal of the current study was to find out effect of different litter materials on behavior, stress and incidence of mortality and morbidity rate on broiler chickens. The Poultry Unit of Livestock Farm Complex of the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, ANDUAT Kumarganj, Ayodhya, UP, served as the study’s location. For a total of 42 days (6 weeks), the experiment was conducted on 240-day-old Vencobb400 straight run commercial broiler chicks. After being weighed, the chicks were divided at random into three treatment groups: Group 1 (Control – Rice husk) is denoted by (Tc), Group 2 (50 % Rice husk + 50 % Paddy straw) is denoted by (T1), and Group 3 (Wood saving) is denoted by (T2). Each treatment group consisted of two replicates, each with 40 chicks. The experiment’s findings indicate that T1, or the treatment groups that received both paddy straw and rice hulls, had lower feeding rates and duration. However, throughout the course of the weeks, there were no significant differences in the frequency or percentage of time spent engaging in certain behaviors across the three groups. At age 6, the H/L ratio was higher in the Tc group (0.37a ± 0.008) than in the T1 group (0.33b ± 0.456) or T2 group (0.35a ± 0.120). According to this study, birds in the T1 group experienced the least amount of stress compared to other treatment groups. The broiler chick mortality rate was 6.25% in the wood-saving litter (T2) and 3.75% in the T1 group, followed by 5% in the Tc group.