Production indices, cost of production, mortality pattern and moisture level of litter for chicken broilers reared under different litter materials

Abstract

In present study 300 unsexed day-old broiler chicks were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments having four replicates each for period of 6 weeks. The treatments (T1 to T5) comprises of saw dust, wheat straw, rice husk, river bed sand and sandy soil (Balu ret) as litter materials. The body weight and feed consumption did not vary significantly among various treatments. During 3rd week saw dust and river bed sand housed birds had significantly better FCR than the rice husk and but in 4th week only river bed sand birds recorded better FCR. Litter types had shown significant effect on protein and energy efficiency ratio (PER and EER) of broilers during the 3rd and 4th weeks of age. Moisture content of river bed sand and sandy soil litter materials were significantly (P<0.05) lower than the conventional litter materials (saw dust, rice husk and wheat straw). Mortality at the end of experiment was higher in sandy soil followed by rice husk, river bed sand, wheat straw and saw dust. Cost of production per kg live weight was higher in saw dust followed by rice husk, river bed sand, sandy soil and wheat straw respectively. This study revealed that the use of river bed sand and sandy soil as litter materials for broiler production may offer benefits to the poultry industry by reducing the cost of production.