7,9,11, Chick Management

The genetic progress of broilers, since the beginning of the industrial poultry industry, has been indicated as one of the most impressive evolutions of animal production. To justify such changes, Sluis (1999) exemplified how much the broilers’ performance increased since 1978 and what are the predictions for 2008. As an example, in this period he demonstrated an improvement of 44% feed conversion in poultry. That means that every year the broilers eat less to get the same weight. So, any time that the broilers do not get the right amount of nutrient this can represent a restriction on their performance. In this context, the feeding of broilers during the first days of life determines the success of their potential growth. This is true as the anatomy and the physiology of their digestive tract is different from older broilers; their nutritional needs are quite limiting as they have problems in digesting and absorbing certain nutrients. They have potential for rapid development in the first days of life but they are being selected for less feed consumption; they have problems surviving in cold environments and also, with all these challenges, their immune system must be protected to respond any time that it is needed. Therefore, losses in the early development of the broilers is more of a problem now than it was in the past.