تأثير الارتفاع عن سطح البحر على اداء دجاج اللحم في منطقة الجبل الغربي - ليبيا

Impact of altitude on broiler's growth performance in the western mountain region of Libya

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of high altitude above the sea level on the broiler performance. The higher the altitude, the lower the air pressure, then (hypoxia). Many studies show that the broiler performance was affected positively when reared at high altitude, the Ascites, Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) are common problems between the birds. 80 Cobb birds were randomly distributed on two treatments, in the first treatment 40 birds were distributed for 4 replications، 10 birds for each, the experiment continued for 6 weeks on the western mountain in Libya where the altitude is around 700 meter above sea level, the second treatment was conducted by sea level, where the altitude is around 20 m with the same procedures, Chicks were maintained on a 24 h constant lighting regime, food and water were available ad libitum, Live body weight, food consumption and food efficiency rate were studied. The results show that there was no significant effect at P≤0.05 of altitude on body weight and food consumption, however the percent of food consumption to the final body weight was significantly better in the birds reared by sea level. The closed results can be interpreted by the medium altitude of the western mountain which is less than 1000 meter above the sea level, and the high genetic adaptation of the Cobb strain to live in different environments. More studies to be done to test the broiler performance during different seasons on the mountains, especially during cold seasons which connected with the prevalence of Ascites and Tibial Dyschondroplasia (TD).