ISSN 2375-0863
African Journal of Poultry Farming ISSN 2375-0863 Vol. 9 (1), pp. 001-006, January, 2022. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Response of broiler chickens to diets of varying protein contents under ad libitum and skip-a-day feeding regimes
Olayode R. Folorunso1, Aanuoluwapo A. Adesua2 and Gbenga E. Onibi2*
1Department of Animal Production Technology, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria.
2Department of Animal Production and Health, The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria.
Accepted 18 October, 2019
Abstract
A 3×2 factorial experiment was used to investigate the effect of varying dietary crude protein levels; optimum (control, 19.64% CP), low (17.72% CP) and high (21.66% CP) diets, fed ad libitum and on skip-a-day bases on the performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. The diets were iso-energetic. A total of 180 3-week old broiler chicks were used at three replicates per treatment and 10 birds per replicate. The feeding trial lasted for 5 weeks. Weight gain was lowest for chickens on low protein diet compared with those fed the optimum (P>0.05) and high protein diets (P<0.05). Chickens fed ad libitum gained more weight (1.62±0.13 kg/bird) than those fed on skip-a-day basis (0.95±0.07 kg/bird). Chickens fed on skip-a-day basis had higher (P<0.05) feed conversion ratio (2.86±0.27) than those fed ad libitum (2.59±0.27). Water intake of the birds significantly (P<0.05) increased with increasing dietary protein. Abdominal fat deposition was promoted (P<0.01) by the low protein diet but reduced (P>0.05) by skip-a-day feeding method. Other carcass characteristics were not influenced (P>0.05) by dietary protein levels but a higher energy to protein ratio promoted the development of organs. Higher values were recorded for carcass characteristics of birds on ad libitum feeding compared with skip-a-day feeding. This study reiterates the benefit of feeding a balanced (optimum) protein diet, ad libitum to broiler chicken finishers.
Key words: Broiler chickens, feed protein, feeding regime, performance.