Abstract:
The study was conducted to investigate the effect of a feed additive (Economase on the performance of broiler Production.
A total of 900 day old male chicks (cobb 500) housed in 12 deep litter pens (75 chicks/pen) were randomly assigned to each of three dietary treatments with four replicates. They were given adlibitum access to feed in mash form and water. The control group (To) received basal diet only. In the test groups the basal diet was supplemented with 100 11J vitamin E / kg (T1), 200 g Economase/ton (T2). During the 42 days growth period there were significant differences in body weight gain and feed conversion ratio between dietary treatments. Economase and vitamin E fed groups increased the weight gain of broilers as compared to the control. Economase fed group resulted the lowest FCR value (1.76) (p< 0.05), and the highest was from control group (1.87). The highest daily body weight gain of broilers was recorded from T2 group (53.5 g) and the lowest daily body weight gain of broilers was recorded from control group (49.8g). There were no differences of feed intake between the three dietary treatments (p> 0.05).
In conclusion, dietary supplementation of Economase has the same or better effects on performance of broiler chicks compared with dietary supplementation of 100 I1J/kg of vitamin E.
Key words: Feed conversion ratio, feed intake, weight gain, Economase, vitamin E
