Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXVI, Issue 2
Written by Hippolyte MEKUIKO WATSOP, Aristide SASSA MEBENGA, Kary OUMAROU MALLAM, Guela ABBA MOHAMADOU, François DJITIE KOUATCHO, Jules LEMOUFOUET, Livia VIDU, Ion CALIN, Monica Paula MARIN
In order to reduce problems linked to mineral deficiency during broilers production, as well as to improve digestive capacity of nutrients, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of pecking stone on broilers production. The study was conducted from October 2022 to February 2023 on 207 chicks of COBB 500 strain. The chicks were divided from the first day into three (3) batches of 69 birds and each batch was split into 3 sub-batches serving as repetitions. A batch T used as a control did not receive any mineral block, while, batch A and B were respectively supplemented with pecking stones A (peck A) and B (peck A). The results obtained showed that the feed conversion ratio of the animals fed the diet supplemented with pecking stones decreased significantly (2.73 and 2.70 for the Peck A and Peck B batches respectively) compared with the control batch (2.97). Body weight gain carcass weight and the feed cost of producing one kilogram of body weight of chicken was significantly (p<0.05) ameliorated with the use of pecking stones. In general, the feed supplement based on pecking stones improved the zootechnical and biochemical parameters of the chickens.
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