Lydia J. Querubin | Celina Donna Q. Bantoc | Josephine R. Centeno | Donabel R. Dahilig | Nelia F. Carandang
Discipline: Animal Science
A total of five hundred sixty (560) day-old commercial broiler chicks (Arbor Acre strain) were randomly distributed to seven dietary treatments following a completely randomized design. The trial was conducted to determine the feeding value for broilers of two yieldgard (YG) corn varieties (C -818 and C-838) versus their isogenic counterparts treated with (IT) and without (NIT) insecticide and to evaluate their effects on carcass quality and dressing percentage. Each dietary treatment was replicated eight times, with ten birds per replicate. The number of male (m) and female (f) birds were equalized for each dietary treatment (40 m and 40 f).
Proximate analyses of the YG corn varieties and their isogenic counterparts treated with and without insecticide were not significantly different (P>0.05) among treatments. Crude protein ranged from 7.42 to 7.91%. Although not significant, coefficient of digestibility of gross energy and metabolizable energy was highest in Treatment 3 (C-818-IT), which had 91.93% and 3621 kcal/kg ME and lowest in Treatment 4 (C-818-NIT), which had 85.70% and 3340 Kcal/kg ME feed.
The use of yieldgard corn varieties and their isogenic counterparts treated with and without insecticide for broiler diets did not affect the performance of broilers in terms of feed consumption, body weight gain and feed efficiency. This indicates that the different yieldgard corn varieties used had similar nutrient composition and feeding value when fed to broilers. Likewise, the absence of significant difference in dressing percentage (with and without giblets) and sensory evaluation denotes similar effects on carcass quality of broilers, and may suggest the safety of using the different yieldgard corn varieties and their isolines treated with and without insecticides as feed for broilers.