Indian Journal of Animal Research
Year : 2007, Volume : 41, Issue : 1
First page : ( 21) Last page : ( 25)
Print ISSN : 0367-6722.

Effect of light source and photoperiods on growth and health performance in broilers

Korde J.P.¹, Kumar A.^1,2, Patel M.^1,2, Rastogi S.K.¹

¹Department of Veterinary Physiology, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263 145, India.

²Department of Livestock Production and Management, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263 145, India.

Abstract

The present study was conducted to observe the effect of light source and different photoperiods on the growth rate and feed efficiency in broiler chicks during February to March at Pantnagar. Initially, the day old chicks in group “A” (n= 288) were exposed to fluorescent light of 30–40 Lux and chicks in group “B” (n= 283) were exposed to incandescent light of 120–150 Lux for 24 h continuous light during first week of experiment. In the 2^ndand 3^rdweek, they were exposed to 23 h Light (LL) and 1 h Dark (DD) (LL 23: DD 1). In the 4^th and 5^th week, birds from group “A” were divided into four groups (n= 65 each) and exposed to LL 23: DD 1, LL 20: DD 4, LL 18: DD 6 at 15–20 Lux and natural photoperiod of LL 13: DD 11 at 50–70 Lux. The results indicated that the fluorescent light of 30–40 Lux during first three weeks of experiment showed significant increment in growth rate and improve feed conversion efficiency compared to the birds maintained in the incandescent light of 120–150 Lux. The last three weeks experiment indicated that, the 4–6 h of dark phase helps to improve the production performance in birds compared to 1 h or 11 h dark phase.

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