2.5. Experimental design
Two hundred and sixteen (216) chickens equally divided across the 3 strains, PK, OV, and BA), were raised on a commercial starter mash for 4 weeks. A 3 (chicken strains) x 4 (diets) factorial treatment arrangement in a complete randomised design (CRD) was used for the growth performance evaluation. However, A 3 (chicken strains) x 4 (diets) x 2 (gender) factorial treatment arrange- ment in a complete randomised design (CRD) was used for the carcass characteristics evaluation. The experimental unit was a pen holding 6 birds (3 males and 3 females), which was replicated 3 times, resulting in a total of 36 floor pens measuring 3.5 m x 1.0 m x 1.85 m (L x B x H). At 4 weeks of age, the chickens from each strain were randomly allocated to the four experimental diets.