The College of Agriculture at the University of Kerbala hosted the defense of a Master’s thesis titled:
“The Effect of Time-Restricted Feeding on Some Productive, Physiological, and Microbial Traits of Ross 308 Broiler Chickens”
by the researcher Khudair Abbas Nasser, as part of the requirements for obtaining a Master’s degree in Animal Production Sciences.
The thesis consisted of seven chapters, including: Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions and Recommendations, and finally, References.
The study aimed to:
- Investigate the relationship between time-restricted feeding and some metabolic issues associated with broiler chicken production.
- Achieve compensatory growth after the restricted feeding period ends and free feeding is resumed.
- Determine the effect of time-restricted feeding on productive traits and performance.
- Study the impact of time-restricted feeding on the physiological and anatomical traits of the intestines.
- Evaluate the effect of time-restricted feeding on microbial traits by measuring the logarithmic counts of lactic acid bacteria and coliform bacteria.
Results:
The researcher reached several conclusions, the most prominent of which are:
• Significant superiority in most studied traits was observed in the groups subjected to time-restricted feeding compared to the control group.
• The time-restricted feeding treatment, which involved removing feed for 6 hours daily (from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) during the period from 8 to 21 days of age followed by a return to free feeding, yielded the best results across all studied parameters.
Recommendations:
The researcher recommended adopting this method in broiler production due to its clear benefits, as evidenced by:
- Significant improvement in productive traits, performance index values, and carcass characteristics.
- Notable enhancement in physiological traits, including increased liver enzyme activity, antioxidant levels, and immunity indicators.
- Superiority in intestinal anatomical traits, through increased relative weights and lengths of the intestines and their sections, including the ceca.
- A significant increase in lactic acid bacteria counts and a decrease in coliform bacteria counts.
