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PRINT: ISSN 2221-1896
ONLINE : ISSN 2223-0343
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Effect of restricted feeding on the carcass
characteristics of Koekoek chickens
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Molapo S.M.1 and Webb E.C2
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1Department of Animal Science, National University of
Lesotho, P.O. Roma 180, Lesotho, South Africa; 2Department of
Animal and Wildlife Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002,
South Africa
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Abstract |
An experiment was
conducted to evaluate the impact of feed restriction on carcass
characteristics of Koekoek chickens. Two hundred and seventy hens and
twenty seven cocks were randomly allocated to four feeding level
treatments in a completely randomized design in chickens were full-fed
in the rearing and laying phases (AA), chickens were full-fed in the
rearing phase and restricted fed during the laying phase (AR), chickens
were fed restricted feeding in the rearing phase and full-fed in the
laying phase (RA) and chickens were fed restrictedly during the
rearing and laying phases (RR). Each treatment had seven replicates (10
animals per replicate) with the exception of RR treatment which had six
replicates (10 animals per replicate). Collected data was subjected to
SPSS (17.00) package and analyzed by using analysis of variance (ANOVA).
In the rearing phase, feed restriction resulted in reduced slaughter
weight, dressing weight, skin weight, breast muscle weight, shank width,
chest width and heart girth (P<0.05). Abdominal fat weight was higher
(P<0.05) in chickens that were full-fed.
At the age of 32 weeks, the effect of compensatory growth was prominent
in chickens that that were subjected to RA treatment in a number of
carcass traits. It is concluded that full feeding only in the laying
phase (RA) would be the appropriate feeding management technique if
chickens were to be slaughtered in the laying phase.
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Keywords:
Koekoek; full-fed;
restriction; carcass and abdominal fat |
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To cite this article:
Molapo SM and EC Webb, 2014.
Effect
of restricted feeding on the carcass characteristics of Koekoek
chickens.
Res.
Opin.
Anim. Vet. Sci., 4(6): 299-304. |
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