The performance of COBB 500 broilers under varying stocking densities

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Date
2004
Authors
Mwaka, Kayula
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Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
An experiment using a Completely Randomised Design with four treatments and four replications per treatment was conducted to determine the performance of the Cobb 500 strain of broilers under varying stocking densities (6 , 9, 12 and 15 birds/m^). The experiment was conducted over a period of 42 days using 168 non-sexed Cobb 500 broilers fed ad libitum. Stocking densities were the treatments. An analysis of variance was used to analyse for the differences in live body weights, weight gain and feed conversion efficiency. The results showed that there were no significant differences (P>0.05) in average daily gain. The values at 42 days were 55.3, 54.2, 53.5 and 53.1g/day for 6, 9, 12 and 15 birds/m^, respectively. The feed conversion ratios for the four treatments were not different (P>0.05). Their values were: 1.99, 2.01, 2.02 and 2.03; and the daily feed consumption per bird was not different (P>0.05) at 42 days for all the stocking densities. These results showed that the stocking density of 15 birds/m^ is not high enough to cause detrimental effects on the broilers and farmers could stock 15 birds/m^ for maximum biomass productivity and efficient use of the space available Key words: Stocking density, live body weight, Biomass productivity, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio.
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Keywords
Chickens , Broilers (poultry)
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