Effects of Nutritional Levels on Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Nutrient Digestibility of Sexed Broilers

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary nutrient levels on performance, carcass yield, commercial cuts, digestibility and economical viability of broilers from 1 to 42 days of age. During the experiment, 180 COBB 500™ chicks were housed in metal batteries and subjected to a completely randomized design in a 2x3 factorial arrangement, of two sexes and three diets (male, female and mixed), totaling 6 treatments and 6 repetitions of 5 birds each. Data were subjected to statistical analysis and the means were compared using the Tukey test, at 5% probability. The results indicate the effect of sex on performance and commercial cuts, except for breast and thigh fillets, in which males and females showed similar results when given the mixed diet. The influence of the nutritional levels on performance, digestibility and commercial cuts was observed, in which the female diet showed the highest results for feed intake, body weight and weight gain, in addition to greater retention of protein and crude energy. For drumstick and abdominal fat yield, the highest values were obtained using the mixed diet and the female diet, and the lowest values were obtained using the male diet. Regarding economic viability, the female diet showed the highest return per unit of Real (R$) spent on feed. Therefore, these data prove that the female diet had a positive effect when provided to both sexes, and it may be a promising alternative for its application at the production level.