Development of organs of the gastrintestinal tract and performance of broilers fed in the post-hatch phase

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of pre-housing diet in chicks from different Cobb broiler breeders ages. A total of 840 broiler chickens were distributed in randomized experimental design, in a 2x2 factorial scheme (two broiler breeder ages x two kind of diets), and seven replicates with 30 chicks each. The treatments consisted of chicks from broiler breeders of 33 and 68 weeks of age given different kind of diets. The parameters feed intake, feed conversion, body weight, daily weight gain and productive efficiency index were assessed weekly until the 42 day old. At 1; 2 and 7 days of age, two birds per repetition, totaling 14 birds per treatment were sacrificed for study of gastrintestinal organs. The administration of pre-housing diet affected the weight of the chicks at 2; 7 and 14 days old, but do not affect the rate of production efficiency in broilers at the end of the trial period. Breeder age influenced the weight of the chicks at all ages analyzed. The weights of gastrintestinal organs were not affected by the diet. Considering the results for the parameters of the performance obtained in this study, the pre-housing diet supply in the post-hatching influenced positively in the development of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract and the growth performance of broilers in the initial phase of growth. It can be used as an alternative for feeding a new market that slaughter chickens at this age.