Response of Broiler Chickens to Quantitative Feed Restriction with or without Ascorbic Acid Supplementation

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) supplementation has been documented as a useful tool to improve the performance of laying birds reared under harsh environmental conditions. However, there is limited information on the use of ascorbic acid as a means of ameliorating the stressful conditions imposed by feed restriction. To this effect a 3 × 2 factorial experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of ascorbic acid inclusion in the diet of broiler chickens under quantitative feed restriction. A total of 96 unsexed 22 days-old Marshall broiler chickens of a commercial strain were distributed to six treatments, birds on treatments 1 and 2 were fed ad libitum, and those in treatments 3 and 4 were placed on 85% ad libitum while those on treatments 5 and 6 were offered 70% ad libitum. Diets fed to birds on treatments 1, 3 and 5 were formulated without ascorbic acid while those on treatments 2, 4 and 6 had their diets supplemented with 200 mgkg-1 ascorbic acid. Blood samples were collected from one bird per replicate for haematological and serum biochemistry on the 35th and 49th days of the study. Performance indices (feed intake, weight gain and intake:gain ratio) were significantly (P