Abstract

This experiment was conducted to compare the difference of digestibility on different body weight chickens. Twenty-seven (27) 58-week-old New Yangzhou Chickens of three grade sizes (small 2.0 kg, medium 2.5 kg, and large 3.0 kg) were selected and distributed into three groups (Group 1, Group 2, Group 3) of nine birds/group, and each group was represented by three replicates. Nutrient retention ratio was determined by adopting whole gather excretion method. In the end of metabolism experiment, all the birds were killed, and the intestine length and intestine weight were measured. Results showed that, the amount of feed intake and excretion increased along with body weight gain; the feed intake and excretion in group 3 were significantly higher than that in group 1 (P < 0.05). The sidelong lengths in the three groups were evidently different. Although, the intestinal length as well as the length of the jejunum, ileum and rectum appeared to be gradually improved with the body weight increase, there were no significant differences among the three groups (P > 0.05). The weightier the intestines, the more was body weight of the birds. The retention ratio of energy, crude fiber and neutral detergent fiber increased with body weight gain, but the differences were not significant (P > 0.05). It was concluded that there was no correlation between body weight and digestibility.

Key words: Digestibility, body weight, cock.