Five hundred seventy-six one-day-old Vencobb
mixed-sex broiler chicks were randomly
allocated to eight experimental groups,
comprising of four replicates of 18 birds. The
birds were reared in floor pens furnished with
rice husk in a grow-out broiler house under
standard management practices. The
environmental temperature was kept about 32°C
during the first week and then gradually
reduced by 2°C weekly to reach about 24°C
during the fourth week. A 1 : 23 darkness to
lighting regimen was followed throughout the
experimental period. Two corn-soybean basal
diets with moderate and high energy levels were
formulated based on Vencobb breeder company
recommendations for starter (1 to 14 days) and
grower (15 to 42 days) periods in broiler chicks.
Chemical composition and the proximate
analysis of the experimental diets are shown
in Table 1. Each basal diet was supplemented
with lecithin extract (0.5 g/kg), choline chloride
60% (1 g/kg) and Bio choline (1 g/kg) and
provided to the birds in mash form for ad libitum
consumption. All the lipotropic additives were
provided from Peekay Agencies Pvt. Ltd.
Kolkata - 700071, West Bengal, India, and
supplemented in the diets based on the doses
recommended by the company.