Eff ects of compound poultry feed with diff erent content of high-protein sunfl ower meal on growth performance of broiler chickens

Chobanova, S. (2019). Eff ects of compound poultry feed with diff erent content of high-protein sunfl ower meal on growth performance of broiler chickens. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 25 (Suppl. 3), 91–94 The aim of the present experiment was to evaluate the eff ect of feeding poultry compound feed with diff erent level of highprotein sunfl ower meal on growth performance of broiler chickens. The experiment was performed with 3 groups of chickens (30 birds in group) – one control and two experimental ones. Feeding isocaloric and isoprotein diets, containing fl our of sunfl ower meal – 10% for the second group and 15% for the third group during the three growth periods, had an adverse eff ect on growth performance: at the end of the fi nisher period the reduction of live weight was by 1.6% and 4.1% for the second and third groups respectively. Feed intake per 1 kg weight gain was increased by 2.7% and 4.2% in experimental groups. It could be assumed that worse production traits resulting from increased proportion of low-cellulose high-protein sunfl ower meal in diets was due to the lower feed intake associated to excessively fi ne meal particles – 150-300 μm. The optimum size of particles in corn or sorghum based poultry compound feed, preferred by broiler chickens, was from 600 and 900 μm.