Animals and diets: A total of 240 day-old male broiler chicks of Ross commercial strain were obtained from a local hatchery. The chicks were randomly allocated to each treatment in brooder cages and fed from day 1 to 17 with the starter diets containing 230 g kg-1 crude protein (CP) and 13.389 MJ kg-1. The birds were then transferred into 24 grower cages equipped with feed and water troughs and fed the grower diets containing 210 g kg-1 CP and 13.389 MJ kg-1 from day 17 to 42 (Table 1).