Avaliação de problemas locomotores em frangos de corte sob distintas dietas

Abstract

Poultry production has grown significantly over the years, a great intensification of production and investments in genetic improvement, leading in some cases the neglect of the welfare of animals. Thus, animals gained more weight and therefore had more difficulty in walking. Birds with locomotor problems tend to bring numerous losses to the production because defective birds have difficulty in accessing the feeder and water dispenser, directly affecting its performance and weight gain. About 10-40% of the gross profit per lot is lost due to locomotor problems in birds, which has its carcass condemned completely or partially in the slaughterhouse. The objective of this work was to identify the intensity of locomotive problems in birds raised with different diets. For that, an experiment was carried out in the premises of the Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Câmpus Dois Vizinhos, using 720 birds of the Cobb 500 commercial line, 360 males and 360 females, divided into 40 boxes with 18 animals each , With a dimension of 1.22 mx 1.26 m. The experiment was divided in four treatments, with 10 replicates each, where 4 different nutritional levels of feed were evaluated. Five birds per box were chosen randomly, which were knit to be used in the evaluations throughout the experimental period. The evaluations were performed at 21, 28, 35 and 42 days of age of the birds. The methodology used to evaluate the locomotor problems was the visual exams of the locomotion capacity of the birds, called Gait Score (evaluation of the walk). The results of the locomotor problem were analyzed by the Assistat program and the means obtained were compared by the Kruskal-Wallis test at the 5% error probability level. The locomotor problem did not present a significant difference, so it was possible to perform an economic viability analysis of each diet based on the cost of each treatment.