Evaluation of various feeding programmes on growth performance, carcass and meat qualities of Thai indigenous crossbred chickens

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of various feeding programmes on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and the meat qualities of Thai indigenous crossbred (50%) Korat chickens to obtain suitable feeding programmes. A total of 480 one-day-old mixed-sex Korat chickens were randomly allotted to four treatments, namely FP1, FP2, FP3 and FP4, with four replicates for each treatment (30 birds per replicate) in a completely randomized design. Chickens in FP1 were fed diets with 21, 19, 17 and 15% crude protein (CP) in periods of 0-3, 3-6, 6-9 and 9-13 weeks old, respectively. Chickens in FP2 were fed diets with 21, 19, 17 and 15% CP in periods of 0-3, 3-5, 5-7 and 7-13 weeks old, respectively. Chickens in FP3 were fed diets with 21, 19, 17, 15 and 14% CP in periods of 0-2, 2-5, 5-8, 8-10 and 10-13 weeks old, respectively. Chickens in FP4 were fed diets with 21, 19, 17, 15 and 14% CP in periods of 0-2, 2-4, 4-6, 6-8 and 8-13 weeks old, respectively. At 13 weeks old, the results showed that Korat chickens fed with FP4 had a higher feed intake, but poorer feed conversion rate (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), and energy efficiency ratio (EER) values than the FP1, FP2 and FP3 treatments. However, the values for bodyweight gain and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) did not differ among treatments. None of the parameters for carcass traits, meat characteristics, and meat qualities revealed differences among treatments, except for the protein content in the thigh meat of chickens fed with FP4, which had a lower value than that of the other treatments. In conclusion, FP3 represented the most beneficial results for reducing feed costs without affecting growth performance, carcass traits, nutrient composition of meat, and meat characteristics of chickens.