Evaluation of three levels of protein in the two first weeks of life and its effects on the performance parameters in broilers

Abstract

The research was carried out at the facilities of the Poultry Module of the Experimental and Practical Station of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of El Salvador. The field phase lasted six weeks and was divided into three stages: pre-starting phase (0 to 14 days), growth phase (15 to 29 days) and finishing phase (30 to 42 days). Thirty birds were used for each treatment, which were divided into three treatments (T1= 19% CP, T2= 21% CP and T3= 24% CP) and a control treatment (T0= 23% CP). The following productive parameters were evaluated: live weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion. Due to the nature of the experimental units, they were evaluated by analysis of variance with a completely randomized model (DCA). In the first 2 weeks of life, the treatment that obtained the highest live weight yield was T3. In the first week, T3 with 24% protein had the highest weight gain. For the variable weekly feed consumption in the initiation stage, T1 had the highest weekly feed consumption and T3 had the lowest weekly feed consumption. For the variable feed conversion in the initiation phase, the T3 treatment presented the best results and the T1 treatment the highest feed conversion. It was concluded that the use of higher protein levels generated better values in the zootechnical parameters in the pre-starting stage