Effect of caffeine supplementation on performance and carcass characteristics of male broilers chicks

Abstract

Abstract: Caffeine added to drinks and food as a stimulator drug, and causes HCL secretion in stomach,<br><br>hypertension and dilated blood vessels. In this experiment 200 1-d-old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to 4 dietary treatments (5 pens/ treatment of 10 male broilers each) in a completely randomized design. First treat was a control and the next three dietary treatments were<br><br>supplemented with caffeine: 2) 0.5%, 3) 1.00%, 4) 2.00%. Broiler starter, grower and finisher diets, based on corn and soybean meal, were formulated, pelleted, and fed ad libitum. All data were analyzed by the analysis of variance general linear models procedure of SAS/STAT software<br><br>and when treatment means were significant (P &lt; 0.05), Tukey’s multiple range tests was used to compare means. Before analysis, the univariate test was used to assess the normality of all data. Results show that with inclusion levels of caffeine, FI and DWG significantly decreased.<br><br>Different levels of caffeine had no significant effects on FCR. Pancreases, neck and bursa relative weight and carcass percentage in 21 d and neck, gizzard and thymus weight in 42 d significantly increased with higher levels of caffeine. It was concluded that there was no significant difference in 0.5 and 1.00 % of caffeine and 2% caffeine cusses caffeinism in broiler chicks.