The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of protein or energy restriction from 8th to 14th days of age, on growth and carcass composition of broiler chickens raised at different environmental temperatures. It was used 900 day-old, male chickens from Ross strain, reared in three environmentally controlled rooms where ambient temperature were maintained at 18, 25 and 33°C up to 42 days of age. For each temperature, a split-plot design was used with feed program as the main plot (control - 2850 kcal ME/kg and 20% of crude protein from 1 to 21 days and 3040 kcal ME/kg and 17% of crude protein from 22 to 42 days; energy restriction - 2565 kcal ME/kg and 20% of crude protein and protein restriction - 2850 kcal ME/kg and 15% of crude protein from 8th to 14th days of age) and age as the sub-plot. From 1 to 7 days of age and after restriction period, the chicks were fed with the control diet. The body weight and carcass composition were analyzed. The results showed that, irrespective of ambient temperature, the qualitative energy or protein restriction did not affect the body weight and carcass composition at 42 days of age, indicating that broilers kept a compensatory gain ability in different ambient temperatures.
broiler; environmental temperature; qualitative feed restriction
