Do alternative litter Materials Affect performance, Welfare and Immune Response of Broiler Chicks?

Ramadan, Sameh G. A.; El-Khloya, Sherif Z.

Two hundred, day-old Cobb chick were allotted into five litter treatments (n=40) each treatment two replicates (n=20). The litter treatments were wood shavings, ground rice straw, ground rice straw sand, ground corn stalks straw, and rice hulls, to the effect of litter material on behavioral perception (twice daily, two days a week for six sequential weeks); productive performance (body weight, feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio); welfare indices (fear, stress, fluctuating asymmetry, plumage score, leg health and abnormalities); some carcass traits; litter quality; immune response against Newcastle diseased virus at 21 and 29 days of age and, mortalities rate. The obtained results data cleared that birds reared on various litter exhibited non-significant changes in feeding, drinking, and standing, preening and scratching behaviors. While, birds reared on rice hulls exhibited significantly higher walking behavior and significantly lower sitting and dust bathing behaviors. Litter type had no obvious effect over body weight, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and mortality rate. Moreover, welfare indices were not affected by type of bedding substances. The litter quality parameter revealed that moisture content and compactness score of litter were not affected by litter type while; cleanliness score of litter was lower in ground rice straw than wood shavings. In addition, immune response against Newcastle diseased viruses was not affected by type of litter. It could be concluded that, litter type affect broiler behaviors also, ground rice straw, ground rice straw sand, Rice hulls and ground corn stalks straw could be used as alternative bedding materials to wood shavings with no effect on performance, welfare, health and immune response of broilers.

IMMUNE response; RICE straw; FEED utilization efficiency; ANIMAL behavior; BROILER chickens; PHYSIOLOGY

Alexandria Journal of Veterinary Sciences, 2017, Vol 52, Issue 1, p133

1110-2047

Academic Journal

10.5455/ajvs.256271