Sunday, March 7, 2010

Early skip-a-day feeding of female broiler chicks fed high-protein realimentation diets. Performance and body composition

U. Santoso1, K. Tanaka2 and S. Ohtani
1 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Bengkulu University, Bengkulu Indonesia
2Department of Animal Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Gifu University, Gifu 501-11 Japan

Abstract. The effect of an early skip-a-day feeding program on performance and body composition of broiler chicks fed high-protein realimentation diets was studied. One-day-old female broiler chicks were withheld from feed for 2 d (0 to 2 d of age), and at 7 d of age three pens of 15 chicks each were randomly assigned to one of five treatments. One treatment (as the control) involved ad libitum access to feed, and other four treatments were subjected to a skip-a-day regimen from 7 to 13 d of age. From 14 to 20 d of age, chicks of the five treatment groups were fed diets containing 21, 21, 25, 30, or 35% protein. Thereafter, chicks were fed a commercial finisher mash diet (18% CP and 3,160 kcal/kg ME) until 56 d of age. Restricted chicks exhibited compensatory growth during the refeeding period, but the 35% CP realimentation diet impaired this phenomenon as indicated by lower recovery index. Chicks of the skip-a-day program, regardless of dietary protein level, had less abdominal fat, as compared with chicks that ate ad libitum. Incomparison with the control, less body fat and ash and greater protein contents were observed in chicks fed the 35% CP realimentation diet. Greater or less triglyceride content was observed in chicks fed 21% CP, or the 30 and 35% CP realimentation diet, respectively, whereas, less carcass triglyceride content was found in chicks fed 21 or 35% CP realimentation diet, as compared with the control group. In conclusion, data of current study show that female broilers subjected to skip-a-day feeding from 7 to 13 d of age fully recovered in body weight at 56 d, irrespective of dietary protein fed during the first 7 d after skip-a-day feeding. Skip-a-day feeding also resulted in reduced 56-d abdominal fat, irrespective of dietary protein fed from 14 to 20 d. Treatment effects on lipid components of livers and carcass varied, especially with respect to dietary protein concentration fed during early realimentation (Poultry Science, 74:494-501, 1995).

Key words: skip-a-day feeding, compensatory growth, abdominal fat, body fat, triglyceride.

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