Evaluation of cold water and vitamin C on broiler growth during hot-dry season in sw Nigeria

A study to determine effects of cold water and C on growth performance in 216 Anak2000 broiler chickens was carried out during hot- season in the SW Nigeria. The minimum, and mean temperatures during the were 19.4, 35.8 and 27.6oC respectively the relative humidity was 72.6%. The broilers, 2000 at d 28 were allotted to two groups either ordinary water (29.5oC) or chilled (8.0oC) for four weeks. Each group was into two. Each half received either 0 or 500 vitamin C per litre in drinking water in 2 x 2 arrangement. There were 3 replicates 18 birds per replicate. Data on daily water (DWI), weekly feed intake (WFI), final (FLW), weekly weight gain (WWG), weight gain (TWG), feed conversion ratio(FCR), percentage survival (SURV), and relative of breast meat, liver, spleen, gizzard,, thigh, heart and wing were subjected analysis of variance. Water temperature had no effect on DWI, WFI, FCR and SURV., offering broiler chickens cold drinking resulted in significantly higher WWG(p<0.001), TWG (p<0.001), FLW (p<0.001) and weight of spleen (p<0.001) compared to at ambient temperature. Addition of 500 mg C per litre water increased significantly the weights of breast meat compared to 0 mg C. Other parameters were affected by C. There were not interaction between temperature and addition of vitamin C on parameters examined in this study. It can be concluded that offering cold water to chickens during hot-dry season increases gain and spleen but reduced wing size. addition of vitamin C could not raised rate in broilers during hot-dry season, the meat yield was improved.