Productive performance and carcass yield of egg type male chickens raised with outdoor access in the tropics
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Productive performance and carcass yield of egg type male chickens raised with outdoor access in the tropics Esther Faustin Evaris 1 & Luis Sarmiento Franco 1
&
Carlos Sandoval Castro 1
Received: 31 January 2020 / Accepted: 6 July 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This study aimed to compare growth and slaughter performance of layer-type slow-growing Rhode Island Red male chickens grown with and without access to an area with vegetation in the tropics. Raised until 115 days of age, a total of 156, 1-day-old birds were randomly allocated to two treatments: total confinement (TC) and partial confinement (PC), with 6 replicates of 13 birds each. Birds grown under TC conditions reached a live weight of 2016.68 g while those raised with access to outdoors attained 1981.07 g, without statistical differences. Feed intake and daily feed intake were higher (P < 0.05) in birds farmed with TC management, during the last 17 days of the trial. Treatments did not significantly (P > 0.05) affect bird’s other productive parameters and carcass traits. Results from this study suggested that slow-growing Rhode Island Red males may be raised with access to outdoors without any adverse effect on productive performance and carcass quality in the Mexican Tropic. Based on the results of this study, a rearing period of 84 days of age is recommended for Rhode Island Red male chickens raised in both TC and PC production systems. Keywords Carcass quality . Layer type . Productive performance . Rhode Island Red . Slow growing
Introduction Over the years, the poultry industry has experienced an exponential expansion and become one of the most important sources of nutritious animal protein in the world. In fact, the demand for chicken, which is sold as parts (breast, thigh, drumstick, leg, wing, heart, gizzard, liver, and paws) or as whole carcasses, is expected to continue to increase in the next decades (OECD 2018). According to Smith (2014) and Fanatico et al. (2005), the whole-bird or whole-carcass market is on the rise due to the interests of consumers to experience the roasting and grilling of the whole chicken. The poultry industry progress is achieved through genetic and nutritional advances (Saxena and Kolluri 2018; Ravindran 2012). Indeed, compared with 50 years ago, a chicken farmed up to 56 days of age that could weigh less than 1 kg can now reach over 4 kg at the same age (Zuidhof * Luis Sarmiento Franco [email protected] 1
Department of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Yucatan (UADY), Carretera Mérida-Xmatkuil km 15.5. Apdo. 4-116 Itzimná, 97100 Merida, Yucatán, Mexico
et al. 2014). Usually, these birds are raised in conventional production system (Averós and Estevez 2018), where they have controlled environmental conditions (Cavani et al. 2009) and, depending on the stocking density, limited space for expression of natural behavior like standing, lying in lateral recumbency, walking, sand bathing, and scratching. However, this accelerated growt
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