Growth Performance of Thai Native Chicken Fed Diet Supplemented with Mulato Grass

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the growth performance of Thai native chickens supplemented with different quantities of mulato grass (Brachiaria spp.). According to a completely randomized design, the 96 5-week-old Pradu hang-dum Thai native chickens were randomized into 4 treatment groups each of which has 3 replications with 8 chickens per replication. Each treatment group was supplemented with mulato grass at 0 (control), 5, 7.5 and 10 percentage, respectively. The results showed that initial weight and average daily feed intake of 4 treatment groups were not significantly different (P>0.05). Final weight, weight gain and average daily gain of the chickens fed 5% mulato grass supplementation were better than those in other groups (P<0.05). The chickens fed with 5% mulato grass supplementation had better feed conversion ratio than other groups (P<0.05). This study showed that diet supplemented with 5% mulato grass affected growth performance in Thai native chickens.