Study on the effect of sand litter compared with straw litter and stocking density on carcass characteristics of broilers

A total of 960 day-old Hubbard meat type chicks purchased from a local hatchery in Riyadh area were used to study the effect of sand litter compared with straw litter on carcass characteristics of broilers performance. The chicks were weighed and randomly allotted to 32 pens (1.5mxlm) with two different stocking density (18 and 22 birds/m2). Two different litter thickness (5 and 10 cm) and four replicates for each treatment were used in the study. At 5 and 6 weeks of age, 3 males and 3 females of each replicate were individually weighed and slaughtered. Carcass and abdominal fat weights were obtained and breast blisters and foot pad lesions were recorded. Carcass weight percentage of live weight and abdominal weight percentage of carcass weight were calculated. Data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis. The results indicated that litter type had no significant effect upon all studied traits except foot pad lesions at 5 and 6 weeks of age, but breast blisters were practically not observed. Birds grown on sand litter tended to be better in an studied traits except carcass percentage and had significantly (P ≤S0.05) lower foot pad lesions at 5 (2.1:26.2) and 6 (9.4:43.7%) weeks of age compared to their peers grown on straw litter. This might be due to the roughness of straw litter, which might have injured foot pads, particularly at early ages. The results showed that litter thickness, disregarding litter type, had no significant effect upon all studied traits except foot pad lesions at 6 weeks of age which was significantly (P:SO.OI) lower (15.6:37.5%) for the birds grown on the Iow litter thickness. They also tended to be better in all studied traits except abdominal fat amount and percentage at 6 weeks of age. This result supports the previous conclusion in the first study, which indicated that 5cm litter thickness is suitable for broiler production. The results indicated that stocking density had no significant effect upon all studied traits except carcass weight and foot pad lesions at 6 weeks of age. Birds grown in the low density had significantly higher (P ≤0.05) carcass weight (1836:1789g) and lower (P ≤O.OI) foot pad lesions (8.5: 14.6%) and tended to be better in the other traits except carcass weight percentage than those grown in the high density. This might be due to the less crowdedness and humidity in the low-density pens. The results also showed that sex had a significant effect upon carcass weight and abdominal fat weight percentage at 5 and 6 weeks and abdominal fat weight at 6 weeks of age. Males had significantly (P ≤0.01) the highest carcass weight and the lowest abdominal fat percentage at 5(1437:1233g), (1.84:2.24%) and 6 (1991:1634g), (1.90: 2.54%) weeks of age and the lowest (P ≤O.05) fat weight (37.9:41.6g) at 6 weeks of age compared to females, which is expected due to the physiological differences