EFFECT OF FINISHER FEED RESTRICTIONS ON SUBSEQUENT GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF COBB 500 BROILER CHICKEN

Abstract

The study was conducted at Haramaya University Poultry farm to evaluate the effect of finisher feed restriction on subsequent growth performance of broiler chicken. A total of 180 unsexed cobb 500 day old broiler chickens were randomly allocated to four dietary treatment groups such as no restriction as control treatment (T1), and 20% (T2), 40% (T3) and 60% (T4) feed restriction of the control feed consumption with Complete Randomized Design. The treatment was applied from day 22 to day 31 for 10 consecutive days followed by ad libitum feeding. Broiler chickens were fed broiler starter diet from day 1 to day 21 and broiler finisher diet from day 22 to day 49. All restricted birds compensated body weight lost during restriction when they were re-alimented. There was no significant difference in feed consumption during the re-alimentation period. The overall body weight and body weight gain of all of the restricted groups were not different from that of the control group at day 49. Low (P<0.05) over all feed conversion ratio was obtained in birds fed with 60% (T4) feed restriction and the highest (P<0.05) FCR was seen in the control. There was no difference in dressing percentage and measure carcass cuts, but carcass weight was lower (P<0.01) in T4 compared to T2. The abdominal fat was lower (P<0.01) in T4 as compared to T1 and T2. Furthermore, low (P<0.01) gizzard and heart weight were observed in the control group, while they had the higher (P>0.05) lung weight and there were no effect of feed restriction on liver, kidney and spleen. It could be concluded that 20% feed restriction (80% of the control group consumption) to the broiler chicken did not affected growth, but reduced mortality, abdominal fat and production cost as compared to the control.