IMPACT OF DIFFERENT SKIP FEEDING PROGRAMS ON CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKS

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of various skip feeding programs on some carcass characteristics of mixed sex broiler chicks. Two Hundred- Forty unsexed 1 day-old commercial strain broiler chicks were included in the experiment. Broilers allocated randomly to four treatment groups with four replicates each and 15 chicks per replicate. The feeding programs were as follows; (T0): Control treatment (The feed is placed in front of the birds on a permanent basis), (T1) Skip every 1 day, (T2) Skip every 2 days, and (T3) Skip every 3 days. Birds were fed ad libitum for two weeks. At age 42 days, one male and female were randomly chosen from each replicate to estimate the carcass characteristics. The results showed that during 14-42 days of age, significant differences (P≥0.05) were obtained for (dressing, breast, back, wings, thigh, drumstick, liver, heart, and gizzard) weight (g) in different skipping programs in males and females. Dressing, breast and thigh weights were significantly increases in group (T0) as compare with other groups. Significant increases were recorded for relative weights of liver, heart and gizzard for males in group (T1), while it was mentioned that characteristics and abdominal fat in females of group (T3) were increased in weights. The effect of treatments on chemical composition of breast, thigh and wings in both sexes were not significant differences except the fat percentage was significant improvement (P≥0.05) in breast percentage for (T2). No significant differences were observed in thigh and wings in both males and females except percentage of fat content in breast in group (T2) which recorded high values.