The objective of the current study was to determine the effect of quantitative feed restriction on the performance of broilers. A total of 270 unsexed broilers were randomly allocated to three treatments: with no feed restriction (T1), one week (T2) and two (T3) weeks of feed restriction from 22 days of age and then fed ad libitum until the age of 42 days. Treatments were replicated three times with 30 birds per replicate. Birds were fed with starter, grower and finisher diets. The feed consumed and body weights were recorded every week from the third to the sixth week. The average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and the feed conversion ratio (FCR) were computed for each week. At Week 6, body weights of T3 birds were similar (P>0.05) to those of T1 and T2 birds. There were also no treatment effects on the ADG at Week 6. In addition, no treatment effects (P>0.05) were observed on ADFI at each stage of growth. Since ADFI and FCR were similar among the three groups, it was concluded that feed restriction by limiting the time to eat was not successful. There was also no evidence of compensatory growth in the restricted groups.

Body weight is a crucial trait that aids farmers in decision-making regarding vaccinations, feeding, marketing and selection during the breeding programs. The study was conducted to investigate the effect of sex and age on body weight (BW), body condition score (BCS) and some blood biochemical parameters (BBP) and to determine the correlation amongst BW, BCS and BBP of non-descriptive goats at Santombe communal farming system. Blood samples were collected from 33 apparently healthy goats (27 females and 6 males) aged 6 -8 tooth with a mean BW (32.62 ± 11.39 kg) while BCS (3.17 ± 0.39) was taken by means of palpating the lumbar area, sternum and the ribs. The BCS was rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being emaciated and 5 being extremely fat. The blood samples were analyzed using Cobas intergra 400 plus chemistry analyzer, Roche for biochemical parameters such as total protein (TP), urea, cholesterol (Chol), magnesium (Mg), phosphorous (P) and calcium (Ca) with mean values of 72.79 ± 5.84 mg/l, 2.76 ± 1.16 mmol/l, 2.08 ± 0.40 mmol/l, 1.09 ± 0.09 mmol/l, 2.30 ± 0.49 mmol/l and 2.45 ± 0.12

2013. The effects of maternal dietary lysine intake on offspring performance to 21 days of age. J. Appl. Poult. Res. 22(4):