Abstract

Litter management is important for poultry housing husbandry and affects chicken performance. The present study evaluated the effect of bedding material and gender on the productive, physiological, and immunological performance of a new hybrid chicken (WINZY Line 105) under cold stress for 56 days of age. A total of 540 one-day-old broiler chicks were divided into two groups. The groups, including 270 males (M) and 270 females (F) were further divided into two sub-groups, including sawdust litter (SL) and plastic slatted floor (PSF), three replicates, and 45 chickens each. Broiler chickens were raised during the winter with an average temperature of 10oC for 56 days. Productive, physiological, and immunological performance parameters were measured. The obtained results indicated that M reared on PSF (M x PSF) recorded the highest values in body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), carcass characteristics, and the best values in feed conversion compared with other interaction groups during all experimental periods. In addition, F reared on PSF had higher BW, carcass, and thigh percentages, low feed intake (FI), and best feed conversion compared to females reared on SL. The M reared on PSF had the highest hepatic enzymes except AST which was higher in F reared on PSF than other treatments. However, renal function biomarkers (Creatine, Uric acid, Urea) were higher in both M and F that were reared on SL than those reared on PSF. Moreover, there was a significant interaction detected for antibody titters against avian influenza (H5) and Newcastle disease at 21 days of age suggesting that the highest values observed for M reared on PSF (M x PSF) compared with other interaction groups during the experimental period, and it was higher in F that reared on PSF than F reared on SL at 21 days of age. It can be concluded that plastic slatted floors could be an alternative to substitute wood shavings to raise broiler chickens since it was efficient from the perspective of environmental conditions and production rates. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2024