Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Gonbad-Kavoos University employee
2 Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
3 Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture Science and Natural Resources, Gonbad Kavous University, Gonbad, Golestan
4 Assistant professor, Faculty of Animal Science, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Abstract
This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of feeding fermented date pite (FDP) on performance, carcass traits and ileal microbial population in broiler chickens. In a 2 ×4 factorial arrangement, 540 day – old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to one of nine experimental diets, each with five replicates containing 12 chicks each. Dietary treatments included a corn- soybean meal – based diet (control), and diets containing 2, 4, 6 and 8% raw date pit (RDP) and 2, 4, 6 and 8 % fermented date pit (FDP). Fermentation process effectively decreased crude fiber and increased crude protein (p < 0.05). Feeding fermented date pite increased feed intake and improved body weight gain in finisher period (25- 42 day) of the experiment (p < 0.05 ). In this period birds fed FDP with level 8% had significantly (p <0.05 ) body weight higher in comparison to chicks fed diet control ( 1474 gr vs 1336 gr ). Birds fed FDP had feed cost higher compared to chick fed RDP (p<0.05). Abdominal fat and gizzard was significantly lower in broiler fed FDP than to RDP (p <0.05 ). Lactic acid bacteria population and coliform in ileum of broilers fed diet containing FDP as compared to RDP were significantly higher and lower respectively (p<0.05). Results of this study demonstrated that fermentation date pite in level 8% led to performance improvement in broiler chickens during finisher period.
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