Effect of Post-hatch Early Feeding Times Starter Supplemented with Egg Yolk and White of Boiled Chicken Eggs (Rhod Island Red) on Growth Performance, Viscera Development, and Immune Response in Broiler Chickens

The experiment aimed to study the effect of post-hatch early held feeding times starter supplemented with egg yolk and white on growth performance, viscera development and immune response in broiler chickens. The working hypothesis was based on the fact that better development of the gastrointestinal tract and immunity system in the first week of the chicks' life affects positively the growth performance. This experiment was designed also to clear up and to compare the effect of 2 periods of post-hatching held feeding times on broiler chickens performance. A total of 160 chicks of fast growing broilers type were allotted according to 4 dietary treatments (N = 40 birds/ treatment), during the first 3 days of age (group C: commercial alimentation (basal diet), group Y1: 66% commercial feed and 33% boiled egg yolk, group Y2: 33% commercial feed and 66% boiled egg yolk and group YW: 33% commercial feed, 33% boiled egg yolk and 33% boiled egg white). Each group was divided into 2 subgroups (f6: 6 h held feeding and f12: 12h held feeding) with free access to water. After that, all the chicks were fed with commercial diets till slaughter. Randomly selected birds from all groups were sacrificed at 11 and 40 days of age where the digestive tube and other visceral organs were measured. Post-hatch delaying feeding time for 6 and 12 hours did not reduce the live body weight of broiler chickens at 40 days of age. Starting from day 15 till the slaughter, chicks fed diet Y1 showed a higher live body weight with a better feed conversion ratio. However, visceral measurements did not show a clearly positive effect of egg yolk on the morphological development of the gastrointestinal tract. The chicks immunity response against NDV, IBV, and G was significantly affected by the diets; Y1 group presents the best response. Results concerning the delaying feeding time confirmed the hypothesis that is based on the fact that delaying feeding time may affect the immunity response against pathogens.