Philippine E-Journals

Growth Performance Of Broilers Fed a Quality Protein Maize (QPM)-Based Diet

Milca O. Amonelo | Domingo B. Roxas

Discipline: Veterinary Medicine, Animal Science

 

Abstract:

A 42-day feeding trial was conducted to determine the effect of using Quality Protein Maize (QPM)-based diet on the performance of broilers. A total of 270 eight days old straight-run broiler chicks (Ross strain) were randomly distributed to 27 cages with 10 chicks each. The treatments were assigned to caged chicks following a completely randomized design. The treatments were: 1 - normal corn diet, 2 - normal corn supplemented with synthetic lysine, 3 - QPM -based diet. The chicks were fed with their respective starter diets from 8-28 days of age and finisher diet from 29-42 days of age. Broilers fed with either normal corn or QPM-based diet had higher (P<0.05) live weight gain compared to those fed diets supplemented with synthetic lysine. Broilers fed either the QPM-based diet or those supplemented with synthetic lysine had lower (P<0.05) feed consumption compared to broilers fed with normal corn diet. Broilers fed with QPM-based diet had the best performance (P<0.05) in terms of feed efficiency. Livability and dressing percentage of broilers did not differ among the treatments. The income over feed and chick costs (IOFCC) tended to increase in broilers fed with QPM-based diet, mainly due to improved feed conversion efficiency and partly due to the reduction in the use of expensive protein sources such as soybean meal, fish meal and synthetic lysine additives.