Abstract
A trial involving male broiler birds in completely randomized design was conducted to determine optimal dietary energy to
protein ratio (E:P) for maximum performance in severe hot climatic conditions. One hundred and fifty 8-days old Starbro®
male chicks were divided into 15 experimental units/ replicates having 10 chicks/ replicate. Five experimental diets were
formulated with metabolizable energy (ME) 2900, 3000, 31000, 3200 and 3300 Kcal/kg, and a constant crude protein (CP) of
21% with E:P 138, 143, 148, 152 and 157 respectively. The experimental diets were randomly allotted to replicates and fed
ad libitum from day 8-42 and data on weekly body weight gain and feed consumption recorded. At the end of the trial, two
birds from each replicate were picked up at random and slaughtered to record the carcass yield. Feed consumption of the
birds was observed to be significantly (P<0.05) improved when dietary ME diluted from 3300 to 3200. Weight gain and
carcass yield were not greatly affected (P>0.05) by ME dilution. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly (P<0.05)
improved with ME 3300 compared with that of 2900 kcal/ kg. Increasing ME or replacing carbohydrates calories with
fat/vegetable oil calories in the diet of male growing broilers was beneficial in terms of growth, FCR and dressed meat yield.
