Table 4.
Effect of dietary treatment and feeding regimen on the tibia measurements and balance of dietary components of broilers chickens. a
| Feeding Regimen (FR) | Ad Libitum | Restricted Feeding | p-Value | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dietary Treatment (DT) | PC b | NG | EHS | PC | NG | EHS | SEM c | FR | DT | DT * FR |
| Tibia Measurements | ||||||||||
| Fresh weight g | 12.1 | 13.3 | 13.0 | 11.7 | 12.3 | 12.1 | 0.444 | 0.02 | 0.14 | 0.84 |
| Dried matter % | 40.7 | 39.8 | 42.1 | 39.0 | 39.9 | 39.6 | 0.871 | 0.04 | 0.45 | 0.26 |
| Dried weight g | 4.9 | 5.3 | 5.4 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 0.201 | 0.01 | 0.19 | 0.77 |
| Ashes % | 62.8 | 62.3 | 64.3 | 63.3 | 64.6 | 62.8 | 0.918 | 0.57 | 0.9 | 0.13 |
| Ashes weight g | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 0.153 | 0.03 | 0.29 | 0.18 |
| Balance of Dietary Components | ||||||||||
| Dry matter | ||||||||||
| Intake g/d | 127 | 132 | 129 | 130 | 134 | 132 | 2.855 | 0.25 | 0.37 | 0.97 |
| Excretion g/d | 36.7 | 37.9 | 37.7 | 39.3 | 39.3 | 39.1 | 0.854 | 0.02 | 0.75 | 0.73 |
| Retention % | 70.8 | 71.1 | 70.7 | 69.8 | 70.5 | 70.5 | 0.719 | 0.3 | 0.76 | 0.87 |
| Ashes | ||||||||||
| Intake, g/d | 13.6 | 14.0 | 13.8 | 13.9 | 14.2 | 14.1 | 0.288 | 0.25 | 0.38 | 0.97 |
| Excretion, g/d | 11.3 | 12.2 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 12.2 | 11.6 | 0.327 | 0.17 | 0.88 | 0.56 |
| Retention, % | 15.5 | 13.3 | 16.7 | 17.3 | 14.1 | 17.7 | 0.365 | 0.42 | 0.46 | 0.39 |
| Nitrogen | ||||||||||
| Intake g/d | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 0.081 | 0.25 | 0.37 | 0.97 |
| Excretion g/d | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 0.037 | 0.01 | 0.24 | 0.45 |
| Retention % | 64.5 | 65.4 | 63.1 | 63.0 | 62.2 | 62.7 | 0.947 | 0.03 | 0.51 | 0.30 |
| Energy | ||||||||||
| Intake Kcal/d | 524 | 543 | 532 | 536 | 550 | 545 | 11.746 | 0.25 | 0.37 | 0.97 |
| Excretion Kcal/d | 133.9 | 142.9 | 138.3 | 146.2 | 146.2 | 146.1 | 3.566 | 0.01 | 0.43 | 0.43 |
| Retention % | 74.1 | 73.6 | 73.9 | 72.7 | 73.4 | 73.2 | 0.743 | 0.18 | 0.98 | 0.67 |
| AMEn Kcal/kg of feed | 2903 | 2879 | 2899 | 2847 | 2880 | 2869 | 29.067 | 0.22 | 0.96 | 0.60 |
a Data of tibia measurements are means of 30 replications per treatment with one bird/replicate and data of balance of dietary components are means of 15 replications per treatment with three pooled samples /replicate. b PC = positive control; NC = negative control; EHS = Extract of humic substances obtained from a worm compost using an alkaline solution. c Standard error of the mean.