COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE IN COBB 500 AND ROSS 308 BROILER CHICKEN OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

The protein demand can be met quickly by rearing different strains of broilers on a commercial basis because broilers can be grown more economically within the shortest period. The objective of the study was to compare the assessment of the production performance between the Cobb 500 and Ross 308 broiler strains. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 10 farms of broiler chickens, including 5 farms for each strain from Hathazari Sub-district, Chattogram, Bangladesh, for a period of 9 months from January to September 2024. The rearing period was 35 days for each farm. Results indicated that the day-old weight of the Cobb 500 and Ross 308 broiler chicken strains were 43.6±2.7 and 40.8±2.2 gm, respectively. The DOC weight of the Cobb 500 was apparently higher than the Ross 308 broiler chicken strains but statistically non-significantly (P>0.05). The final weight of the Cobb 500 (2295.6±31.4 gm) was significantly (P=0.0020) higher than the Ross 308 (2157.0±24.1 gm) broiler strain. The average daily body weight gain of the Cobb 500 (65.58 gm) was comparatively higher than the Ross 308 strain (61.62 gm). Total feed consumption of the Cobb 500 and Ross 308 strain per bird was 3296.28± 125.4 gm and 3571.91± 99.7 gm, respectively. The average daily feed intake of the Cobb 500 and Ross 308 were 94.17 gm and 102.05 gm, respectively. The result also indicated that the Ross 308 strain intake feed was significantly (P=0.0036) higher than the Cobb 500. The study also found that a significantly (P=0.0011) better FCR was provided by the Cobb 500 (1.43) than the Ross 308 (1.65) strain. In this study, the mortality rate was slightly minimal for Ross 308 (3%) followed by Cobb (3.4%). The mortality of the broiler strains was significantly unaffected throughout the rearing period (P>0.05). However, the result indicated that there was a significant difference between the broiler strain with its production performance. In conclusion, the Cobb-500 broiler strain has appeared to be the most economical to rear amongst the two broiler strains investigated here in response to their performance records. The Cobb 500 strain of broiler chicken could be recommended to broiler farmers for increased productivity in the study area.