Sabah Sena, lumturi Sena*, anila Hoda and marjana Nikolla
Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania;
*corresponding author e-mail: lumturisena@yahoo.com;
Abstract:
A total of 600 broiler chicks (ROSS-308) were randomly assigned into two analogous groups to one of two treatments: one of the group was fed on mash while the other one on pellet diet in the age duration of 21 to 43 days, aiming to compare the performance of broilers on two dietary groups. Both groups of chicks consumed the same feed ration/formula and were housed in the same building in adjacent rooms, under same environmental conditions and access to feed and water. During the whole period of trial, both body weight and the gained weight resulted to be higher (with significant difference) to the group of chicks fed with pellet feed. A clear trend was noted towards the improvement of feed consumption per unit of gained weight of the chicks under the experimental group (p ≤ 0.05). For the entire period of the experiment, the experimental group of chicks consumed 0.27g feed/g of live weight, or 9.64% less feed/unit of gained weight compared with the control group. Use of pellet feed influenced the improvement of the performance index to a level of 15, 41%. The group fed on pellet feed during the trial period demonstrated the highest values of PEF (19.69% more) and technical performance. The results ofthis experiment give an impression that pellet feed is better than mash one for the production of commercial broilers, applied for the age duration of 21 to43 days.
Keywords: broilers, growth rate, live weight, mash, pellets
