Effects of different levels of date pits on performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters of broiler chickens

The effect of date pits (DP) in diet of broiler chickens on performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters was studied. A total of 192 day-old commercial broiler chickens were assigned randomly to four experimental diets containing 0, 10, 20, and 30% of DP kg −1 dry matter. All diets were isonitrogenous and isocaloric, and formulated according to nutrient requirements of poultry. The birds and feed of each treatment were weighted weekly. At 6 weeks of age, bleeding from cardiac puncture performed for serum biochemical analyses. DP significantly decreased final weight, average daily gain and feed consumption (p0.05). DP could provide a cheap source of feed to birds and using 10% had no negative effects on performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters.