F. Khajali,
Volume 9, Issue 3 (fall 2005)
Abstract
This study was carried out to evaluate the duration of time of feeding starter and finisher diets on live performance and carcass characteristics of female broilers. Starter diet was fed to 14 or 21 days of age. Finisher diet was fed beginning at 35 or 42 days up to 49 days of age. The results indicated that reduction of duration of feeding starter diet reduced weight gain (P<0.0071) and impaired feed conversion ratio (P<0.0002) up to 21d. Reduction of time of feeding starter diet caused a decrease in body weight at 21d (P<0.0071) whereas it had no effect on body weights at 42 and 49 days. Increasing time of feeding finisher diet caused a drop of the weight gain (P<0.0076) and impaired feed conversion ratio (P<0.0001) up to 42d but these differences were not significant up to 49d, suggesting a catch-up growth during 42 to 49d. There was no significant effect of dietary treatments on carcass characteristics at 49 days of age. Lowering time of feeding starter diet and increasing time of feeding finisher diet caused a significant decrease in pH, moisture and nitrogen contents of the litter.
F Khajali, R Bagheri,
Volume 13, Issue 48 (7-2009)
Abstract
The present experiment was carried out to determine the effect of feeding a diluted diet together with avilamycin or probiotics on catch-up growth of broiler chickens. Three hundred day-old chicks (Ross 308 hybrid) were assigned to 4 treatments with 5 replicates based on a completely randomized design. The control group, which met NRC requirements, fed a diet consisting of 2900 KCal/kg ME and 20.8%CP. A diluted diet included 2700 KCal/kg ME and 19.4%CP fed to the negative control group during 7 to 21 days of age. There were two additional treatments with 10ppm avilamycin and 100ppm probiotic, respectively. Feeding the diluted diet resulted in reduced body weight gain (P<0.05). Final body weight was higher in chickens having received avilamycin. Although this difference was insignificant compared with the control, it was significant in comparison with other groups. There was no significant difference in terms of feed intake among the treatments. However, birds which received avilamycin had superior feed conversion ratio to other groups. Birds in the control group had the highest abdominal fat content but the difference was not significant. In conclusion, avilamycin significantly increased body weight gain during catch-up growth though the probiotic caused no significant change.
