Growth performance and economic efficiency influenced by different housing zones in sexed broilers

The present study was undertaken to examine the growth performance and economic efficiency of sexed broilers (360 of each sex), replicated six times, maintained in environmentally controlled broiler house and were subjected to three house zones (evaporative cooling pad, central and exhaust fans). All birds in this experiment were maintained on 4 phase feeding regimes i.e. 0-10, 11-20, 21-34, 35-42 days, with CP levels of 21, 20, 18 and 17%, respectively. Weekly data on growth performance parameters were recorded and were analyzed using Completely Randomized design. The comparison of means was made using DMR test. Results showed that male broilers gained significantly (P<0.05) more body weight as compared to female, while, the overall means of all the other parameters differed non-significantly in both sexes. Significantly (P<0.05) higher feed intake, bodyweight, feed efficiency, production number, point spread, performance index, uniformity, better FCR and low mortality were observed in the birds which were reared in pad zone. The birds of this zone also fetched more profit as compared to the other house zones.

Keywords: broiler, house zones, sex, growth performance, economics