Effect of Nutrient Intake Restrictions by Dietary Dilutions with Sand on Broiler Performance

An experiment was conducted to determine growth and carcass characteristics of Lohman strait run broilers subjected to varying degree of dietary dilutions (nutrient intake restriction.) from 14 to 21 days of age. Nutrient restrictions were achieved by feeding a starter diet diluted with 0 (T1), 10 (T2), 15(T3), and 20% (T4) of builder s sand on a weight basis. There were four replicates in each treatment and 50 chicks per each replicate. After completing 7 days of nutrient restriction, all birds received undiluted starter diet for 28 days, followed by a finisher diet to trial termination at 56 days of age. Birds that were fed on the diluted diets exhibited reduced growth rate (P 0.05) at 21 days of age when compared with the control group. Complete growth compensation by all birds that previously received the diluted diets was attained by 56 days. Varying levels of nutrient restriction did not affect growth compensation. No significant differences in food conversion ratio between groups were observed except for T4 (20% sand) that was significantly higher than all other groups. Nutrient restriction reduced fat contents in liver, breast and thigh meat at 56 days, but the effect was not always significant, such significance was only noticed at 15% in liver and breast samples when compared to T1 and T2. Abdominal fat in restricted bird? was significantly (P 0.05) reduced compared with the control group at the 56th day. Moreover, there was a significant (P 0.05) increase in bones length, thickness and strength of all broilers exposed to the dietary dilution at the 56th day of age when compared with the control. At the 56th day of age, length and empty weight of the digestive tract were significantly (P 0.05) different with respect to the same traits of the control group. In conclusion, nutrient intake restriction was accomplished by diluting the diet with sand when broiler chicks were fed on such diet between 14 to 21 days of age to improve their performance