EFFECT OF DIFFERENT LITTER MATERIALS ON THE PRODUCTIVE AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS

Document Type : Original Article

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Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

10.21608/ejnf.2024.394227

Abstract

A total of 198 one-day-old Ross 308 broiler chicks were used in a five-week study to investigate the effect of different litter materials on their productive and physiological performance. At the beginning of the experiment, chicks were randomly divided into three experimental groups, with six replicates each. The three groups were assigned the following litter materials: 1) wood shavings, 2) agricultural waste (tree pruning waste), and 3) a 50/50 mixture of wood shavings and agricultural waste.  Results indicate that litter types didn’t significantly affect the final body weight, weight gain, total feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and mortality rate. However, litter types significantly impacted the weight of the bursa of Fabricius, RBCs, WBCs, PCV, and Hb content in the blood. The highest values were observed in group 1 followed by groups 3 and 2 respectively. On the other hand, raising birds on agricultural waste litter resulted in the lowest production cost and the highest profit or economic efficiency, followed by birds raised on mixture litter, compared to those reared on wood shavings alone. In conclusion, the performance of birds raised on wood shavings was the best numerically in most production and physiological measurements, followed by birds raised on the mixed litter, and finally, the group raised on agricultural waste litter alone. Based on these results, agricultural waste and the mixture of wood shavings + agricultural waste can be considered viable alternatives as cost-effective bird bedding compared to wood shavings alone. Therefore, this study recommends their use in broiler farms.

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