Evaluation on the effects of sex on growth and carcass characteristics of broilers

Three experiments were carried out to determine the quantitative effects of sex on growth and carcass characteristics of Arbor Acre broiler chicken strain. In experiment I, birds were raised in straight-run groups while birds in sexsegregated groups were employed in experiment II. Individually-raised birds were investigated in experiment III. In terms of the various properties of growth performance studied, males were generally superior to females whether raised in mixed or sex-segregated groups or individually. Superiority in body weight, feed intake and feed conversion ratio ranged between 5.8-22%, 3.4-12.2% and 1.3-14.6%, respectively, over the ages of 22-46 days. At all ages under study, males were superior to females in body weight and feed intake. There was a trend of increased superiority with increasing age for body weight and feed conversion ratio. Differences in mortality rate and percentage of carcass yield between sexes were small and not significant while female birds showed indications of higher abdominal fat content than males, particularly at a young age of 22 days.