Effects of Strain and Skip-a-day Feed Restriction on Carcass Characteristics of Cocks at 16th Week of Age

Abstract

Feed restriction has been described as a management tool to limit birds’ access to feed in order to reduce feed cost without compromising their health and meat products. The present study was undertaken to assess the effects of strain of cocks and feed restriction at different ages on carcass characteristics. The study was conducted at Teaching and Research Farm of Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria for a period of 16 weeks. A total number of 180 day-old cockerels of two strains comprising Black and White plumage (90 chicks each) were procured to examine and compare their carcass characteristics. At 6th week of age, the birds were randomly distributed into four treatments with three replicates for each strain. The treatments are, T1: control (ad libitum), T2: feed restricted from 6th -7th week, T3: feed restricted from 8th -9th week and T4: feed restricted from 10th -11th week. Data collected at 16th week of age include live body weight, bled weight, dressed weight, eviscerated weight, breast weight, back muscle weight, drumstick and thigh weights. Analyzed results showed that live weight and carcass weights were not significantly (P > 0.05) affected by strain. Both strains recorded similar mean values. With regard to feed restriction, no significant (P > 0.05) effect was found for live weight and most traits with the exception of bled weight, breast muscle weight and thigh weight. However, the control and 6th week restricted birds recorded superior mean values in such cases. The study indicates that the two strains are good for increased meat production and revenue generation, while the 6th week feed restriction is suggested for maximum productivity and profit.

Corporate Value: Impact of Sales Growth, Leverage, and Investment Opportunity Set

“…The obtained result was in agreement with the previous findings [11,12,14]. It is however, contrary to the findings of Chukwuka et al, [15] who reported that there were significant differences among carcass characteristics of different strains of broilers.…”

“…However, birds on the control (ad libitum) had the highest value of breast weight; while birds on 7 th week feed restriction recorded the least mean value of the trait. This contradicts the report of Azarnik et al, [10] who reported that there is an increase in breast weight after a feed restriction regime, but agree with Fasuyi et al, [11] who found that some carcass traits (such as bled weight, breast muscle and thigh weight) were affected by feed restriction. As regards back weight and thigh weight, the traits were not significantly affected by feed restriction regimes.…”

“…In addition, Azarnik et al, [10] and Fasuyi et al, [11] reported that some carcass traits such as bled weight, breast muscle and thigh weight were significantly affected by feed restriction. Also, Olawumi et al, [12] observed similar live weight and other carcass characteristics in different strains of broilers.…”

Impact of Different Skip Feeding Programs on Carcass Characteristics of Broiler Chicks

“…Current revolutionary technology in livestock industry has received some quality improvements meat production, the study improvement initiatives broiler genetic potentials for growth, as taken lead high mortality to increased deposition of body fat and high prevalence of metabolic and skeletal instability rate (30). To minimized such negative effects, the results of quick genetic selection growing broilers consuming fodder ad libitum, it introduced the concept of feed restriction in develop the sector and to satisfy animals protein requirements (10). There are lots of feed restriction options open to farmers, those involved sporadic, skip-a-day feeding, diet dilution, time limits and limiting quantitative feed (5), So these various forms were all intended to enhance user productivity and weight gain for feed and lowered mortality rate.…”