EFFECT OF DIETARY ENERGY TO PROTEIN RATIO ON THE GROWTH OF MALE BROILERS KEPT UNDER OPPRESSIVELY HOT CLIMATIC CONDITIONS

A trial involving male broiler birds in completely randomized design was conducted to determine optimal dietary energy to protein ratio (e:p) for maximum performance in severe hot climatic conditions. one hundred and fifty 8-days old starbro® male chicks were divided into 15 experimental units/ replicates having 10 chicks/ replicate. five experimental diets were formulated with metabolizable energy (me) 2900, 3000, 31000, 3200 and 3300 kcal/kg, and a constant crude protein (cp) of 21% with e:p 138, 143, 148, 152 and 157 respectively. the experimental diets were randomly allotted to replicates and fed ad libitum from day 8-42 and data on weekly body weight gain and feed consumption recorded. at the end of the trial, two birds from each replicate were picked up at random and slaughtered to record the carcass yield. feed consumption of the birds was observed to be significantly (p<0.05) improved when dietary me diluted from 3300 to 3200. weight gain and carcass yield were not greatly affected (p>0.05) by me dilution. the feed conversion ratio (fcr) was significantly (p<0.05) improved with me 3300 compared with that of 2900 kcal/ kg. increasing me or replacing carbohydrates calories with fat/vegetable oil calories in the diet of male growing broilers was beneficial in terms of growth, fcr and dressed meat yield.