Efecto de la profundidad de cama en el comportamiento productivo de pollos camperos.

Abstract

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of litter depth on the productivebehavior of free-range chickens. For this purpose, 80 experimental units were evaluated in acompletely randomized design with 4 treatments: 10, 15, 20 and 25 cm bed depth. The resultshowed that there was an effect of the evaluated litter depths on the final weight at week 10(p<0.05) with the treatments being: T1 (Males + 10 cm Pc) with 3161.10 g, T2 (Males + 15 cmPc) with 3156.70 g, T3 (Males + 20 cm Pc) with 3133.90 g and T4 (Males + 25 cm Pc) with2735.40 g, the best, being statistically similar to each other. Feed conversion showed that T1 (Males + 10 cm Pc) with 2.80, T2 (Males + 15 cm Pc) with 2.82, T3 (Males + 20 cm Pc) with 2.82, T4 (Males + 25 cm Pc) with 2.77, were the most efficient. There was a higher level of association (R2) between the variables of litter depth and humidity at 10 cm and 15 cm with84.3%; the level of ammonia T4 (Males and Females + 25 cm Pc) with 96%. Regarding footpad dermatitis due to the effect of litter depth, it was established that T4 (Males + 25 cm Pchad 100% of chicks with this condition. The economic analysis showed that T1 (Males + 10 cm Pc) had the highest benefit/cost ratio of 1.22 and a benefit of 17.81 %, making it the mosprofitable from an economic point of view.