Effect of energy density of diet on growth performance of Thai indigenous (50% crossbred) Korat chickens from hatch to 42days of age

The aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of the energy density of diet on the growth performance of Thai indigenous crossbred (50%) chickens known as Korat chicken (KRC). A total of 1440 mixed-sex KRC (720 birds in each phase) were randomly allocated to 4 dietary treatments containing 2750, 2900, 3050, or 3200kcal ME/kg diet with 6 replicates of each treatment in a completely randomized design. The experimental diets were tested from hatch to 21days and from 22 to 42days of age. In both age groups, body weight gain was not affected (P>0.05) by the ME density of the diets. Feed intake however decreased with increasing (metabolizable energy) ME (P<0.05), thereby significantly improving the feed conversion ratio (FCR). Broken-line analysis was performed to estimate the ME content of feed to obtain minimum FCR and maximum protein efficiency ratio (PER) values. Minimum FCR and maximum PER values were found when the diet contained 3000kcal ME/kg from hatch to 21days of age and 3175kcal ME/kg from 22 to 42days of age, respectively, using diets containing 7.5 and 6.6g of protein/100kcal ME, respectively. In conclusion, we established that the ME requirements of KRC from hatch to 21days and 22 to 42days of age were 3000 and 3175kcal/kg, respectively.