Physical form and energy concentrations of broiler diets

Abstract

Commercial broilers were reared in controlled environment houses to nine weeks of age at 464 cm2 of floor space per bird. The treatments over the starter and finisher phases were two metabolizable energy concentrations of 11.5 and 13.2 MJ kg-1 each in either mash or pelleted form with a commercial pellet treatment as a control. Dietary energy content was negatively correlated with food conversion ratio but did not significantly influence liveweight. Pelleting significantly increased liveweight and improved food efficiency. There was no evidence of an interaction between dietary energy content and physical form of the diet. The increased cost of the higher energy diet counterbalanced the decreased food consumption per unit of body weight.