Effects of different levels of Hull-less barley and triticale on performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters of broiler chickens

A study was conducted to examine different levels of hull-less barley and triticale on performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters of broilers during 1-42 days. Five hundred and twenty five 1-d-old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly allocated to 7 groups according to completely randomized design. Each group comprised five replicates with 15 chickens each. Commercial corn-soybean meal diet was used as control treatment. Other dietary treatment contained 15, 30 and 45% hull-less barley and 20, 40 and 60% triticale to replace corn as B1, B2, B3, T1, T2 and T3, respectively. Diets were formulated to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous according to the National Research Council (1994) recommendation. Results showed that increasing amount of hull-less barley and triticale in the diet of broiler chickens reduced feed intake. Feed intake was affected by diets in the starter and whole period, and chickens fed 30% barley and 20% triticale had the maximum feed intake among dietary treatments. However, feed intake was no significantly affected by treatments in growth period (P0/05). Body weight gain was significantly differrant among experimental groups in growth and whole period. In these periods, 30% barley and 20% triticale level, did not show significant differences with controls (P0/05). Feed conversion ratio became worse in groups containing high levels of barley and triticale as compared to the control group; however, diets contains 15% barley and 20% triticale in both periods improved FCR compared with other barley and triticale groups. Abdominal fat percentage and carcass yield were not affected by diets (P0/05). Serum triglyceride and urea concentrations were not affected by diets, but glucose has been influenced by different groups and the lowest value showed in chickens fed with 15 Hull-less barley (P0/05). In conclusion, replacement of corn with hull-less barley up to 30% and hull-less triticale up to 20% did not have adverse effect on performance of Ross broiler chickens.