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Growth response of crossbred village (kampung) chickens to starter diets of differing energy contents

Engku Azahan, E.A.¹*, Azlina Azma, I.A.² and Noraziah, M.²

¹Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor,
²Strategic Livestock Research Centre, MARDI, GPO Box 12301, 50774 Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian J. Anim. Sci. 2011 14(1): 51-56

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A study was carried out on crossbred Malaysian village (kampung) chickens to investigate the effect of dietary energy in the starter feed on growth performance. The dietary treatments were 13.5, 12.5, 11.5 and 10.5 MJ apparent metabolisable energy (AME)/kg feed, imposed from day one until the termination of the trial on day 21. All diets were iso-nitrogenous at 21% crude protein level. Energy efficiency (energy intake per kg body weight gain) was significantly lower (p<0.05) with treatment 10.5 MJ/kg than with other treatments, with a trend of increasing efficiency values with increasing dietary energy levels. Between treatments, differences in body weight gain and feed conversion efficiency were not significantly different while differences in feed intake were inconsistent. It is concluded that for the crossbred kampung chicken during the starter phase, low dietary energy levels in the vicinity of 10.5 MJ/kg might prove to be relatively economical as compared to the use of dietary energy level of 12.5 MJ/kg or higher as usually practiced for commercial broiler starter feeds.