Effects of Litter Thickness on Production Performance, Immune Organ Indexes, Serum Biochemical Parameters and Welfare Quality of Yellow-Feathered Broilers

SHAO Dan, HE Jiao, WANG Qiang, CHANG Lingling, SHI Shourong, BU Zhu, TONG Haibing

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1006-267x.2014.08.042

2014 , Vol. 26 >Issue 8: 2357 - 2364

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1006-267x.2014.08.042

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Effects of Litter Thickness on Production Performance, Immune Organ Indexes, Serum Biochemical Parameters and Welfare Quality of Yellow-Feathered Broilers

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1. Poultry Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yangzhou 225125, China;
2. College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China

Received date: 2014-03-24

Online published: 2014-08-13

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Abstract

This trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of litter thickness on production performance, immune organ indexes, serum biochemical parameters and welfare quality of yellow-feathered broilers. A total of 1 600 21-day-old Suqin yellow-feathered male broilers were randomly allocated 4 groups with 5 replicates per group and 80 birds per replicate (8 birds/m²). These birds were assigned to litter thickness treatments for 4, 8, 12 and 16 cm, respectively. Each treatment was represented by 5 replicates. The experiment lasted for 35 days (from 22 to 56 days of age). The results showed that litter thickness had no effects on production performance, blood routine parameters, and serum biochemical parameters (P>0.05). The litter moisture content showed significant response to increasing litter thickness (P<0.05), and there was significant linear correlation between litter moisture content and litter thickness (P<0.001). The plumage pollution, plumage damage, and foot pad dermatitis as well as breast blister displayed significant reply to increasing litter thickness (P<0.05), and they were linearly affected by litter thickness (P=0.005, P<0.001, P=0.007 and P=0.013, respectively). The findings in this study reveal that increasing properly litter thicknesshas beneficial effects on litter quality and welfare quality of yellow-feathered broilers aged 56 days, and the effects of 16 cm litter thickness are best.

Key words： yellow-feathered broiler; litter thickness; production performance; welfare quality

Cite this article

SHAO Dan, HE Jiao, WANG Qiang, CHANG Lingling, SHI Shourong, BU Zhu, TONG Haibing . Effects of Litter Thickness on Production Performance, Immune Organ Indexes, Serum Biochemical Parameters and Welfare Quality of Yellow-Feathered Broilers[J]. Chinese Journal of Animal Nutrition, 2014 , 26(8) : 2357 -2364 . DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1006-267x.2014.08.042

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