CARCASS AND ORGAN CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIFFERENT COMMERCIAL FEEDS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.6396Keywords:
Carcass, Broiler chicken, organ, Commercial feedsAbstract
An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of feeding some commercial feeds sold in Bauchi metropolis on carcass and organ characteristics of broiler chickens. Two hundred and forty (240) broiler chickens weighing between 205.68 and213.17g were randomly assigned to four commercial grade broiler feeds in replicates of four containing 15 birds each in a completely randomized design. Feed and water were supplied ad libitum and the study lasted for 7 weeks. Results showed no significant influence on all carcass and organ indices. Live weight ranged between 1762.50 on diet 1 and 2012.50g on diet 3. Carcass weight was from 1603.90 to 1775.50g while dressing percentage was between 64.26 and 70.05% on diets 2 and 4 respectively. Organ weights for gizzard, kidney and liver were 2.28 -3.24%, 0.27 – 0.49% and 1.93 – 2.21% respectively. Abdominal fat weight was between 0.67 and 1.08%. It was therefore concluded that the four commercial feeds did not differ in quality and farmers’ choice can be guided by only by price.
