Effect of Reused Litter and Chemical Amendment on Broiler Chicken Performance and Litter Quality

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of chemical amendments and reused litter on broiler performances, immune response and skin quality. Five hundred and seventy six (576) day old broiler chickens were randomly allocated to 3x2 factorial design experiment. Three amendments treatment included control (no chemical addition), alunminum sulfate and zeolite; two types of litter were new and reused one. There were 4 replicates and 24 broiler chickens in each pen. The feed and water were available ad libitum during 42 days of experiment. The type of bedding had no significant effect on broilers performances (weight gain, feed efficiency ratio and mortality). Chemical amendments improved broilers performances during 0-35 days of production period but by the end of experiment there was no differences between treatment groups. Neither bedding type nor chemical amendments influenced skin erosion criteria responses. The immune response of broilers was not affected by either type of bedding or chemical amendments. It could be concluded that although beddings to be reused, it should be treated so as to overcome any defect of reused bedding.

Keywords

• Reused litter
• Chicken
• Performances
• Amendment litter