THE EFFECT OF FEED RESTRICTION IN REARING PERIOD ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF ISA BROWN EGG-TYPE CHICKEN

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effect of resiricted feeding at rearing phase of egg-type chicken on the growth performance. A total of two hundred and seventy chicks of Isa Brown strain were randomly divided into three such that the first, second and third treatment groups were fed ad libitum (R,), one day restriction (R,) and two days restriction (R,) per week respectively from second to seventh week. At the grower phase (8- 20" week), each group was sub-divided into three (ad libitum (+,), one day (r,) and two days restriction (r,)) to make nine equal groups; The birds were fed chicks and growers mash for the first 7 weeks and 8-20 weeks of age, respectively. Data obtained from the completelyrandomized design in a 3x3 factorial arrangement were subjected to least squares analysis of variance. Results showed significant (p<0.05) reduction in feed intake and body weight of birds due to restricted feeding. The birds maintained on R, and R, feed restrictions recorded higher (p<0.05) feed intake (73.06g, 71.38g) and daily weight gain (11.02g, 11.02g) respectively, when compared with birds on R, Furthermore, R, and R, had better (p<0.05) feed conversion ratio (6.64, 6.50) and mortality (0.00%, 0.00%) respectively, than R, birds with 6.94 and 5.56% respectively. The main restriction and sub-restriction interactions revealed that grower-restricted birds (Ry',) were better than the starter-restricted birds (R,r,) in feed intake, final weight, weight gain and protein intake. The group also had lower mortality. It could be concluded that one day feed restriction is more beneficial and feed restriction above one day, should be applied at grower phase