Effect of Dietary Protein Level on the Performance and Carcass Characteristics of the Broiler Chicks

Abstract

The effect of dietary protein level on broiler chick growth and performance was studied. A six week’s feeding trial was conducted with day old broiler chicks (Hubbard) reared in an open deep litter house. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design (CRD), consisting of 12 pens (experimental units). Each pen was of one square meter area and accommodated 8 experimental chicks. Four experimental diets were used in the trial. They were formulated from the local feed ingredients commonly used for poultry feeding in the Sudan. The diets had graded levels of dietary protein content, namely 20, 22, 24 and 26%. The diets are allocated at random to the experimental pens at the rate of three replicates per treatment (diet) giving a completely randomized design. Records were kept for weekly feed consumption, live weight gain, feed conversion ratio and daily mortality. At the end of the trial, the experimental birds were starved overnight from feed, and six birds from each dietary treatment were selected at random for each treatment (2 birds form each replicate), and were slaughtered for determination of carcass characteristics. The collected data was subjected to analysis of variance for the completely randomized design. The soft ware used was the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), (Steal, Torrie and Dickey, 1997). Differences among treatments means were tested using Duncan’s multiple range test