ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2014, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (5): 775-780.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2014.05.014

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Light Intensity on Beijing-You Chicken’Hormone Secretion,Production Performance and Carcass Performance

HUA Deng-ke1,2, LI Dong-li3, SUN Yan-yan2, TANG Shi2,BAI Hao2, LIU Nian2, LIU Ran-ran2,ZHENG Mai-qing2, ZHAO Gui-ping2, WEN Jie2, CHEN Guo-hong1, CHEN Ji-lan2*   

  1. (1.College of Animal Science and Technology,Yangzhou University,Yangzhou 225009, China; 2.National Key Laboratory of Animal Resources and Germplasm Innovation,Institute of Animal Science,Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences,Beijing 100193, China; 3.Beijing Bainianliyuan Ecological Agriculture Co.,LTD,Beijing 101500, China)
  • Received:2013-11-22 Online:2014-05-23 Published:2014-05-23

Abstract:

Using LED (Light-emitting diodes) as light sources,four different light intensities were taken in this trial to study their effects on Beijing-You chicken’ hormone secretion,production performance and carcass performance,in order to find the best light intensity for Beijing-You chicken.1 728 1-day-old Beijing-You chicken were randomly distributed into 4 treatments,each treatment included 12 replicate groups with 36 chicks per group(15 birds per m2).All chicks were exposed to 20 lx of light intensity for the first week,and then followed by 4 different light intensity treatments (1,10,30 and 50 lx) until 13 weeks of age.At the end of 5,9 and 13 weeks of age,body weight gain (BWG),feed intake(FI) and feed intake:body weight gain(F/B) of each group were determined, respectively.Then,the FI,BWG and F/B were calculated during the 1-5 week,6-9 week,10-13 week and 1-13 week.At 13 weeks of age,12 birds (half were male) per treatment were randomly chosen to detect the serum levels of Growth Hormone (GH) and Melatonin (Mel) using ELISA.6 birds (half were male) per group were processed to estimate the carcass traits.For the whole growth stage(1-13week),light intensity had no significant effect on BWG and F/B(P>0.05),but the FI of 1 lx group was extremely higher than that of 30 and 50 lx groups(P<0.05).The effects of light intensity on the levels of GH and Mel were the same,the levels of GH and MEL in 50 lx group was extremely lower than that of the other groups (P<0.05).Light intensity had no significant effect on all the carcass traits (P>0.05),including dressing percentage,eviscerated percentage,breast meat percentage,thigh meat percentage,and abdominal fat percentage,the eye weight and diameters(side-to-side and back-to-front).Considering the previous results,when light intensity changed from 5 to 30 lx,it had no significant effects on Beijing-You chicken’ production performance,carcass traits and the secretion of GH and Mel.As a result,the 5-30 lx of light intensity can be recommended in practice,low intensity light can keep the performance and save electric energy.

CLC Number: