Effects of early feed restriction on growth performance and ascites incidance in broiler chickens

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of feed restriction on broiler performance and incidence of ascites. Live material of the experiment consisted of 280 male chicks day-old commercial (Ross-308) broiler chicks. The experiment was held with a randomly allocated control group and three treatment groups and five replicates.The birds were full fed ad libitum in the control group while the feeders were removed for 8, 16 and 24 hours per day for the treatment 1st, 2nd and 3rd groups respectively between the 15th and 22nd days. Average body weight gain and feed consumption, didn’t differ with treatment, but it effect on incidance ascites (P<0.05).