The Effect of Dietary Energy and Light Treatment on Broiler Performance

Abstract The influence of three dietary metabolizable energy (ME) levels and two light regimes on broiler performance was studied in three feeding experiments. Broiler chicks were fed starter diets containing 3086 (23.5% protein), 3197 (24.6% protein), or 3307 (25.1% protein) kcal of ME/kg of ration. An intermittent lighting (IL) program of 15 min light:45 min darkness was compared to a continuous lighting (CL) control. Light treatment had a significant effect on body weight with CL controls weighing 8.2 and 24.0 g heavier than IL birds at 28 and 56 days of age, respectively. However, IL improved feed efficiency over CL by .040 at 28 days and .019 units of feed per unit of weight at 56 days of age. Although the effects of light X diet interactions were nonsignificant, the higher energy rations increased body weight more in CL than in IL. As the dietary energy of the ration increased, feed utilization at 56 days of age improved proportionally more with IL than with CL. Differences in total mortality, disease condemnations, and downgrades were also nonsignificant. Both male and female broilers grown in IL had less abdominal fat than those grown in CL, but differences were significant only between the female groups (P

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