Year: 2018 | Month: December | Volume 8 | Issue 6
Effect of Photoperiod on the Production Performance and Carcass Quality Traits of Turkey Poults
Abstract:
A study was conducted to assess the effect of photoperiod on production performance, development of digestive organs and carcass quality traits of turkey poults. One hundred and forty four, one week old turkey poults of Small white variety were distributed into three treatment groups, each comprising of three replicates of 16 poults. T-1 poults were subjected to conventional lighting programme (16L: 8D), T-2 poults were subjected to continuous lighting programme (24L: 0D) and T-3 poults were subjected to intermittent lighting programme (16L: 3D:2L: 3D). It was found that the average weekly body weight gain of T-2 poults were significantly higher (P<0.05) than T1 during 2nd week and 3rd week of age. Further, body weight gain of T-2 poults was numerically higher than the other two treatment groups till 9th week of age. FCR was significantly better (P<0.05) in T-2 compared to other two treatment groups during 2nd week and 3rd week of age. Further, FCR was significantly better (P<0.05) in T-2 compared to control group during 4th week of age and apparently better compared to the other two treatment groups throughout the experiment. Percent dressing yield of the birds reared in continuous and intermittent lighting programme was found to be significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of birds reared in conventional lighting programmes. Hence, it may be concluded that turkey poults maintained on a continuous lighting program during their early growth phase may elicit higher body weight gain and better feed conversion ratio than other lighting regimen.
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