Comparative performance and haematological profile of cockerel chickens debeaked at varied length and at different ages

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the comparative performance of cockerel chickens debeaked at varied length and at different ages. One hundred and ninety-five cockerel birds were purchased from a reputable hatchery, brooded and randomly allotted into 4 treatments of three replicates and 15 birds per replicate. Treatment 1 (T1) served as the control which contained 15 birds that were allotted into 3 replicates without debeaking. At the 4th week, 45 birds were debeaked at varied degrees of debeaking to form treatments 2, 3 and 4 respectively as follows: T2- ½ of upper beak and ½ of lower beak debeaked using 5 birds per replicate and 3 replicates per treatment. T3- 1/3 of upper beak and ½ of lower beak debeaked using 5 birds per replicate and 3 replicates per treatment and T4- 1/3 of upper beak and ½ of lower beak were debeaked using 5 birds per replicate and 3 replicates per treatment as it was done in all other treatments. Also, the same procedures used for all the treatments, in the 4th week as demonstrated above were repeated in the sixth, eighth and tenth week of age respectively so as to reflect the treatment effect at different ages. Data collected include: initial and final weight, daily feed intake, body weight gain and of haematological parameters. Results showed that varied degrees of debeaking examined significantly affected (p< 0.05) all the performance parameters considered: body weight gain, FCR, heterophil/lymphocyte ratio etc. It was therefore concluded that farmers should imbibe the practice of cutting half of the upper beak and half of the lower beak or one third of the upper beak and half of the lower beak (T2) preferably at the earlier stages of the birds' life as they gave better values for the performance parameters considered.