THE EFFECT OF FEED RESTRICTION AT THE STARTER PHASE ON PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS

Abstract

Two hundred and twenty five day old straight run broiler chicks were utilized in completely randomized design to test the effect of restricting feed intake of four groups of chicks to 92.5% 85.0%, 77.5% and 70.0% of the unrestricted (control) group in the starter phase and following adlibitum feeding for all groups in the finisher phase. The treatments were simply designated as A, B, C, D and E. The starter phase in which the restriction was carried out lasted 28 days and the finisher phase 42 days. Parameters evaluated during the starter and finisher phases included; growth rate, feed conversion ration and mortality rate. Results show gain in weight among all groups while the group fed diet B and the control had comparable weight gain at the starter phase. The percentage weight difference between the control and each of the other dietary groups was: 4.4%, 8.4%, 8.6% and 10.4% for the treatments B, C, D and E respectively. Feed gain ration improved as the level of restriction became stricter. Following ad-libitum feeding of all grops at the finisher phase, the feed restricted groups at the starter phase voraciously increased their feed intake, thus, producing comparable performance values with the unrestricted (control) group in weight gain in the 8th week of the study. Although birds in all groups averaged more than 2000g final live weight in 10weeks, significant differences exist between groups that were fed diets C, D, and E that were restricted at the starter phase, an indication that complete compensatory growth was not obtainable. Feed gain ration improved for restricted groups. Mortality rate did not show any trend attributable to levels of feed restriction. This study shows that broiler chicks fed restricted levels of balanced diet at the starter phase but later fed ad-libitum at the finisher phase could attain a finished weight of about 2000g or more at a market age of 10 weeks (70 days) with an improvement in feed gain ration.