EVALUATION OF GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF NOILERS, BROILERS AND ISA BROWN COCKERELS AS MEAT TYPE CHICKENS

Abstract

Growth is the single most important phenotype for evaluating the productivity of livestock species. This study evaluated growth performance of noiler meat chicken compared with broilers and isa brown chicken. Forty-eight (48) each of noiler male (cockerels), noiler female (pullets), broilers, and isa brown cockerels were used and the experimental birds were allotted into four (4) treatments comprising noiler male, noiler females, broilers and isa brown cockerels representing treatment 1 – 4, respectively. There were three (3) replicates per treatment and each replicate contained 16 birds and the experiment lasted 86 days. Data collection included initial weight, weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, final weight and mortality. Final weight, weight gain, average daily weight gain, average feed intake, feed conversion ratio, initial weight and average daily intake were significantly different (P<0.05). However, mortality was not affected (P>0.05). Initial weight, average final weight, daily weight gains and total weight gained followed the same trend, values for broilers (263.67g/bird, 2585.33g/bird, 27.00g/bird/day and 2321.66g/bird, respectively), male noilers (214.33g/bird, 2290.00g/bird, 24.14g/bird/day and 2075.67g/bird, respectively), female noilers (202.00g/bird, 1906.67g/bird, 19.82g/bird/day and 1704.67gbird, respectively) and isa brown cockerels (135.00g/bird, 1180.00g/bird, 12.15 g/bird/day and 1045.00g/bird, respectively) were significantly different (P<0.05) among themselves across the treatments except noiler male and females. Average daily feed intake for boilers, noiler cockerel, noiler pullets and cockerels were 60.48, 57.21, 45.39g/bird/day and 41.43g/bird/day, respectively. All the values were significantly different (P<0.05) among themselves across the treatments. The results revealed that growth performance of broilers significantly surpass noiler males and females, however, noiler chicken recorded feed conversion ratio similar to value reported for broilers.