Replacing corn with Germinated Wheat in broiler chicken diets and its effect on carcass Traits and dressing percentage

• Suzan W. Sabry Saja H. Al-Rubaee Al-Rekabi Mohannad Munthir J. Mohammed J. Ahmed Asrar S. Ahmed

  Author

This study was conducted to determine the effect of replacing corn with germinated and non- germinated Wheat , either completely (100%) or partially (50%), in the diets of broiler chickens at the main and secondary carcass cuts, on dressing percentage, and on the weight of eaten and uneaten offal. One hundred and twenty one-day-age Rss308 chicks were used and randomly distributed into five treatments with three replicates per treatment (8 chicks/replicate). The treatments included treatment (T1), fed a standard diet; treatment (T2), replacing 50% of corn with  non- germinated Wheat ; treatment (T3), replacing 50% of corn with Germinated Wheat  and treatments (T4) and (T5), replacing 100% of corn with  non- germinated Wheat  and Germinated Wheat , respectively. The experiment lasted 42 days. The results showed a significant improvement (P≤0.05) in birds' weight before slaughter, it was significantly higher for treatments (T3) and (T5), reaching (1991.67 and 1989.00) grams per bird, respectively. Similarly, (P≤0.05) there was a significant difference in post-slaughter weights, with (1691.00 and 1740.67) grams per bird, respectively, for the same two treatments. Treatments (T3), (T4), and (T5) also showed a significant difference in the dressing percentage, reaching (89.52, 83.66, and 89.84)%, respectively. Furthermore, treatments (T3) and (T5) showed a significant difference (P≤0.05) in the main cut weights (breast and thigh), with breast weights (559.33 and 570.66) grams, respectively. Similarly, thigh weight was recorded at 460.00 and 450.33 g respectively for the two treatments mentioned. Neck weight showed a significant increase (P≤0.05) in treatment T3, reaching 55.67 g compared to the control treatment (57.33 g). Likewise, both spleen and thymus gland weight showed significant increases (P≤0.05) in the treatments where germinated and non- germinated Wheat were fully or partially replaced with corn. The thymus gland weights for treatments T3, T4, and T5 were 0.362, 0.397, and 0.345 mg per bird, respectively, indicating improved bird health and disease resistance.

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