Browsing by Author "Webb, E. C."

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    Effect of restricted feeding and season on the carcass chemical composition of Koekoek chickens
    (International Journal of Applied Poultry Research, 2014) Molapo, S. M.; Webb, E. C.
    The main objective of the study was to determine the effect of restricted feeding and season on carcass chemical composition of Koekoek chickens. Two hundred and seventy hens and 27 cocks were used. The experiment was designed as a factorial of two seasons and four feeding regime treatments. The four treatments were AA, AR, RA and RR. Each treatment had seven replicates (10 birds per replicate) with an exception of RR treatment which was replicated six times (10 birds per replicate). Data was collected at 18 and 32 weeks of age. At the age of 18 weeks, feed restriction had an impact on dry matter, fat and crude protein percentage. At 32 weeks of age, birds that were fed restrictedly had reduced fat content and increased crude protein. The lowest crude protein percentage was recorded in chickens that were allocated to full feeding for the entire study (AA). Chickens that were allotted to summer treatment had a higher dry matter and crude protein content than chickens that were in winter treatment at 18 weeks of age. Koekoek chickens that were in summer and winter treatments performed differently in terms dry matter, ash, crude fat and crude protein percentages at the age of 32 weeks. It is therefore, concluded that restricted feeding coupled with rearing chickens in winter resulted in lean carcass with more protein.
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    Effect of restricted feeding on carcass characteristics of Koekoek chickens
    (Anim. Vet. Sci, 2014) Molapo, S. M.; Webb, E. C.
    An experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of feed restriction on carcass characteristics of Koekoek chickens. Two hundred and seventy hens and twenty seven cocks were randomly allocated to four feeding level treatments in a completely randomized design in chickens were full-fed in the rearing and laying phases (AA), chickens were full-fed in the rearing phase and restricted fed during the laying phase (AR), chickens were fed restricted feeding in the rearing phase and full-fed in the laying phase (RA) and chickens were fed restrictedly during the rearing and laying phases (RR). Each treatment had seven replicates (10 animals per replicate) with the exception of RR treatment which had six replicates (10 animals per replicate). Collected data was subjected to SPSS (17.00) package and analyzed by using analysis of variance (ANOVA). In the rearing phase, feed restriction resulted in reduced slaughter weight, dressing weight, skin weight, breast muscle weight, shank width, chest width and heart girth (P<0.05). Abdominal fat weight was higher (P<0.05) in chickens that were full-fed. At the age of 32 weeks, the effect of compensatory growth was prominent in chickens that that were subjected to RA treatment in a number of carcass traits. It is concluded that full feeding only in the laying phase (RA) would be the appropriate feeding management technique if chickens were to be slaughtered in the laying phase.
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    Effect of restricted feeding on the growth performance of Koekoek chickens.
    (International Journal of Applied Poultry Research, 2014) Molapo, S. M.; Webb, E. C.
    The objective of this study was to determine the effect of restricted feeding on growth performance of Koekoek chickens. Two hundred and seventy Koekoek chickens were randomly allocated to four feeding treatments. The four treatments were AA (full feeding throughout the study), AR (full feeding for rearing and feed restriction for laying, RA (feed restriction for rearing and full feeding for laying phase) and RR (restricted feeding throughout the study). Feed restriction during the rearing phase (AA and AR) significantly (P<0.05) increased the final body weights and total weight gains of chickens. The feed intake was significantly higher in full-fed chickens. Unrestricted feeding during the rearing phase (AA and AR) significantly improved the average feed conversion ratio. During the laying phase, final body weights of chickens in RA treatment were significantly heavier compared to those in other treatments. Chickens in RA treatment gained (P<0.05) more weight followed by birds in AA, RR and AR treatments respectively. The chickens that were feed restricted only during the laying phase (RA) were significantly efficient in feed conversion. Therefore, it is concluded that early feed restriction is the best feeding management strategy. Key words: Full-fed, weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, mortality rate