Influence of the Nutritional Additive OVOCAP in Pheasants
I. Live Weight, Feed Intake, Carcass Characteristics

M. IGNATOVA1, P. MARINOVA1, K. TYUFEKCHIEV2, I. KITANOV2 and T. POPOVA1
1 Institute of Animal Scienc, BG - 2230 Kostinbrod, Bulgaria
2 Southwestern University "N. Rilski", BG - 2700 Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

Abstract

IGNATOVA, M., P. MARINOVA, K. TYUFEKCHIEV, I. KITANOV and T. POPOVA, 2005. Influence of the nutritional additive OVOCAP in pheasants. I. Live weight feed intake, carcass characteristics. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 11: 183-188

The study was carried out to investigate the effect of the nutritional additive OVOCAP on the live weight, feed consumption and carcass characteristics in pheasants. Forty birds - twenty males and twenty females at the age of 7 months were used in the study. They were divided in three groups - one control and two experimental, each containing equal number of males and females pheasants. The experimental period was 10 weeks during which the pheasants from the experimental groups were administered four times with OVOCAP. The OVOCAP treatment led to an increase of the live weight and a decrease of the daily feed intake. A trend of enhancement of the meat content and a slightly decrease of fat percentage in meat was observed as well.

Key words: pheasants, nutritional additive OVOCAP, performance, carcass characteristics