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184145

The Effect of Feeding Frequency and Amount on Performance, Behavior and Physiological Responses of Broilers

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Animal welfare and behavior

Abstract

The aim of this study was to conclude the effect of feed frequencies and amount on growth performance, carcass traits, physiological responses and behaviors of broilers chicks. One hundred Ross broiler chicks at 7 days old were randomly assigned into five regimens (20 chicks per each program with two replicate). Experimental design were as follows; T1: feeding once a day (100% diet at 6:30), T2: two equal feedings per day (50% of total diet at 6:30 and 18:30), T3: two feedings per day (75% at 6:30 and 25% at 18:30), T4: three equal feedings per day (33.33% at 6:30, 12:30 and 18:30) and  T5: three feedings per day as 50% of diet at 6:30, 25% at 12:30 and 25% at 18:30.Chicks were fed with commercial broiler diet for five weeks. The obtained results indicated that offering two equal feeding times per day was significant (p < 0.05) improved overall body weight, body weight gain and average daily gain of broiler chicks. Chicks fed single, twice per day and three times of 4th regimen showed higher feed intake than chicks of 3rd and 5th regimens. Feed frequencies had significant (P<0.05) effect on percent of carcass, spleen and intestine percentage. High proportion of chicks of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th feeding regimens showed significant more feeding and preening behaviors than chicks of 5th regimen. Chicks of 5th regimen exhibited significantly higher foraging behavior than those of 3rd and 4th regimens. Moreover, feeding frequency with different amount of feed decreased the duration of tonic immobility test means less stressful and high chick welfare. T2 showed significant increasing on heterophil, total protein, globulin, serum glucose and growth hormone levels in comparison to the other groups, as well as a lower albumin/globulin ratio and albumin. In conclusion, two equal feeding per day (T2) might be a desirable feeding approach that might produce good healthy birds with maximum growth performance and improved welfare. 

DOI

10.21608/javs.2021.80537.1086

Keywords

behaviour, Broilers, feeding frequency, Growth performance, physiology

Authors

First Name

Enas

Last Name

Aziz

MiddleName

K.

Affiliation

Department of Husbandry and Animal Wealth Development, Animal Behaviour and management, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sadat City, Egypt.

Email

enas.aziz@vet.usc.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

0000-0001-5086-5078

First Name

Shimaa

Last Name

Masoud

MiddleName

R.

Affiliation

Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sadat City, Egypt

Email

shaimaa.masoud@vet.usc.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

6

Article Issue

3

Related Issue

24871

Issue Date

2021-07-01

Receive Date

2021-06-13

Publish Date

2021-07-01

Page Start

76

Page End

85

Print ISSN

1687-4072

Online ISSN

2090-3308

Link

https://javs.journals.ekb.eg/article_184145.html

Detail API

https://javs.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=184145

Order

11

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,095

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of Applied Veterinary Sciences

Publication Link

https://javs.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

The Effect of Feeding Frequency and Amount on Performance, Behavior and Physiological Responses of Broilers

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023