POSSIBILITY OF BROILER PRODUCTION ON REUSED LITTER | ||||
| Egyptian Poultry Science Journal | ||||
| Article 7, Volume 39, Issue 2, June 2019, Page 405-421 PDF (608.83 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/epsj.2019.35039 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
Mohammed Shehata Abougabal
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| Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| This study examined the possibility of raising broiler chicks on partially or totally used litter and its effect on broiler performance, economic efficiency, carcass traits, litter characteristics, FPD score and welfare. At 7 day old, 360 Cobb broiler chicks were randomly allocated in 12 pens till 6 weeks of age, with 3 replicates of 4 experimental treatments contained 30 birds per pen. The treatments included; T1: new litter (NL), T2: mixed litter (NU), T3: 100% used litter (UL) and T4: 100% used litter treated with alum (UT). The results indicated that differences in most traits; LBW, FC, FCR, livability %, EPEI, economic feasibility, carcass traits and behavior patterns were insignificant (P<0.05) between different litter type groups. Except that, litter characteristics, FPD and FS grades were significant (P<0.05) between all types of litter where FP and FS scores were higher on used litter. Overall data trended to be numerically higher in NL group and always followed by UT group. In conclusion, results suggesting that recycling litter had no adverse effect on broiler performance, survival %, carcass traits, economic consideration and broiler welfare. Beside of that, alum amendment to composted reused litter offered an additional improvement on productive performance, litter quality and welfare. Our results provided evidence that, broiler chicks raised on reused treated litter can grow, perform and have welfare equal to that of birds reared on new litter. But, complementary studies measuring the impact on immune response, antioxidant enzymatic activity as well as a bacterial count, would be useful and necessary. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| reused litter- alum-wood shaving- broiler | ||||
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