Evaluation of cost of medication of commercial broiler production in the tropics

Ninety (90), day-old Anak broiler birds were used to evaluate the cost of medication in commercial broiler production in the tropics in a study that lasted eight weeks. Three treatment groups were involved in the experiment: A control (No medication), B (routine prophylaxis) and C (routine vaccination and continuous coccidiostat). The experimental design employed was Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The birds were fed ad libitum and freely provided with drinking water. Daily feed intake and weekly body weight were recorded. Results showed that significant (P<0.05) differences existed in weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion efficiency. Treatment C had better production indices than treatments A and B. With respect to economic indices evaluated vis-à-vis cost of production/bird, relative cost/bird, total sales, mortality rate and gross margin; treatment C that recorded the highest cost of production/bird and relative cost/bird gave better total sales, mortality and gross margin among other treatments. It is therefore concluded that cost of prophylaxis did not adversely affect the production cost and it is necessary so as to safeguard against any sporadic or enzootic diseases that might by chance attack the flock and cause unprecedented loss of cash and meat.Noventa (90) pollos asaderos Anak de un día se utilizaron para evaluar el costo de medicación en la producción comercial de pollos asaderos en los trópicos en un estudio que duró ocho semanas. Tres grupos de tratamiento estuvieron involucrados en el experimento: un control (sin medicación), B (profilaxis de rutina) y C (vacunación de rutina y coccidiostáticos continuos). El diseño experimental empleado fue un diseño completamente aleatorizado (DCA). Las aves se alimentaron ad libitum y libremente provistas con agua potable. Se registraron el consumo diario de alimento y el peso corporal por semana. Los resultados mostraron que existieron diferencias significativas (P