Bashir Alboshi*(1)
(1). Poultry Nutrition, Hama University, Hama, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: E-mail: Bashir-alboshi@hotmail.com).
Received: 29/06/2020 Accepted: 25/08/2020
Abstract
A digestibility experiment was carried out using 45 unsexed chicks of a commercial broiler breed (Ross 308) which were taken from a hatchery nearby an experiment farm. Breeding started in 23/9/2017, to estimate metabolisable energy values of diets that feeding to chicks in first week of its life. Chicks were collected without need to complete operation of hatching to ensure chicks to be hatched at the same time. Chicks were placed in special cages that meet their purpose, to determine the amount of feed and chicks manure resulting from each studied group. Chicks were distributed into three groups, and each group divided into 3 sub-groups, where each sub group contains 5 chicks. Chicks were fed different diets as follows: Chicks of 1st group were given broiler diet directly after hatching (control group). Chicks of 2nd group were given broiler diet contain 5% glycerin directly after hatching and chicks of 3rd group were given broiler diet contain 5% corn starch directly after hatching. Groups were fed (Ad-libitum) until the end of the experiment at the age of 7 days. The results showed that adding glycerin 5% in broiler diets increased apparently metabolisable energy and true metabolisable energy in this diet with significant differences (P≤0.05) compare with control group and cornstarch group. The results showed also that adding cornstarch had no significant differences (P≤0.05) compared with control group. The results showed no significant differences in average live weight of all groups studied at the end of first week.
Key words: Broiler chicks, Early nutrition, Metabolisable energy, Glycerin, Cornstarch.
Full Paper in Arabic: PDF