Indian Journal of Poultry Science (2022) 57(3): 269−273 ; Research Article

DOI: 10.5958/0974-8180.2022.00034.4

Effect of feeding different dietary protein levels on growth performance of

Kadaknath chicken
A. BALAKUMAR*, C. PANDIAN, S.T. SELVAN, J. RAMESH AND R. RICHARD CHURCHIL
Department of Poultry Science, Madras Veterinary College
Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai 600 051, India

(Received on January 21, 2022; accepted for publication on September 30, 2022)

ABSTRACT
Balakumar, A., Pandian, C., Selvan, S.T., Ramesh, J. and Churchil, R.R. 2022. Effect of feeding different dietary protein levels on growth
performance of Kadaknath chicken. Indian Journal Poultry Science, 57(3): 269-273.
A biological trial was carried out to study the dietary protein requirement of Kadaknath chicken during the growing phase (0-12
week) to assess the growth performance. A total of 240 day old Kadaknath chicks were wing banded, weighed individually and
distributed randomly into four experimental groups with three replicates of 20 chicks each. Four experimental diets were formulated
with four levels of crude protein viz., 14, 16, 18 and 20 per cent with 2800 kcal / Kg ME. The birds fed with 20 per cent crude protein
with 2800 kcal /Kg ME had highest body weight (895.81±16.11 g ) when compared to other treatment groups. The cumulative feed
consumption was 3481.59±39.25 g, 3384.09±40.23 g, 3386.31±36.64 g and 3478.46±32.89 g in groups fed with 20, 18, 16 and 14% CP
respectively. Among the various treatment groups, T4 group fed with 20% CP showed better feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 4.03±0.08
followed by with 18, 16, and 14% CP respectively. The above study concluded that Kadaknath chicken diet having 20 per cent crude
protein and 2800 kcal/Kg ME up to 12 weeks of age is optimum to elicit best growth performance in terms of body weight and feed
conversion ratio.
Keywords: Kadaknath chicken, dietary crude protein, growth performance

INTRODUCTION Kadaknath chicken. Hence, the present research work

Indigenous chicken breeds are good source of
animal proteins (Singh et al., 2017) and could be very
helpful in combating the nutritional deficiencies and
generating income for the rural masses, especially in the
developing countries. Native chicken are well known for
their adaptability to local agro-climatic condition,
hardiness, ability to utilize locally available feed, require
minimum care and management besides having a unique
flavour and taste. In India, there are 19 registered breeds
of native chickens as per ICAR- National Bureau of
Animal Genetic Resources; Kadaknath is one among them.
The specialty of the breed is the flesh and internal organs
of this chicken are black in colour. As the breed is famous
for its black colour and black meat chicken, commercial
farming of Kadaknath chicken has successfully started
in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala
states. The available broiler and egg type chick mash
was the option for feeding; certainly the nutrient
requirement of Kadaknath chicken is different from the
broiler birds. In order to obtain optimum performance
and efficient utilization of feed ingredients, there is a need
to work out the requirements of major nutrients mainly
crude protein for Kadaknath birds as the practice of
providing commercial broiler or native chicken diet may
not be economical and ideal to bring out the optimum
performance. Very little research work has been carried
out on nutrient requirement and meat characteristics of
*Corresponding author Email: drbalavet94@gmail.com
was designed to study the effect of dietary protein on
growth performance Kadaknath chicken.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A biological experiment for standardization of
dietary crude protein and its effects on carcass
characteristics in Kadaknath chicken was carried out for
a period of 12 weeks at Department of Poultry Science,
Madras Veterinary College, Chennai-07 during the year
2021. A total of 240 day old chicks were wing banded
and weighed individually. Four treatments groups with
three replicates of 20 chicks each were allocated by
randomization based on body weight. The diet required
for four different treatment groups with varying crude
protein levels (14, 16, 18, 20%) with constant energy
level (2800 kcal/kg ME) were prepared. Feed ingredients
and its composition along with the additives used in the
biological experiment are given in Table 1. During the
initial period of first two weeks, the chicks were housed
in cages and later shifted to deep litter system. The feed
and water were provided, ad libitum and reared under
standard managemental conditions.Production parameter
such as live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake
and feed conversion ratio along with the liveability were
assessed in the trial chicks throughout the trial period of
12 weeks. All the experimental data on growth
performance parameters particularly weekly body
weight, body weight gain, feed consumption, feed
conversion ratio and livability were documented.
Balakumar et al. / Dietary Protein and Kadaknath performance

Table 1. Feed ingredients and its composition of the experimental ration (0-12 weeks)
S.No. CP% 14 16 18 20
ME (kcal/kg) 2800 2800 2800 2800
FEED INGREDIENTS T1 T2 T3 T4
1 Maize (kg) 58.00 56.45 57.00 57.00
2 De oiled rice bran (kg) 26.15 19.70 13.15 5.73
3 Soya bean meal (kg) 3.00 9.00 15.00 20.00
4 Sun flower oil cake (kg) 3.00 5.00 5.00 7.50
5 Dry fish (kg) 7.00 7.00 7.00 7.00
6 Mineral Mixture (kg) 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00
7 Salt (kg) 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25
8 Additives (g) 0.33 0.32 0.30 0.26
Additives (g)
1 AB2D3K 0.010 0.010 0.010 0.010
2 Ultracil 0.050 0.050 0.050 0.050
3 Synercox 0.050 0.050 0.050 0.050
4 Vetroliv 0.050 0.050 0.050 0.050
5 Ultra B12 0.010 0.010 0.010 0.010
6 Sodium bicarbonate 0.050 0.050 0.050 0.050
7 Spectra DFM 0.010 0.010 0.010 0.010
8 Lysine 0.060 0.040 0.030 0
9 Methionine 0.040 0.050 0.040 0.030
TOTAL (kg) 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Proximate composition
1 Crude protein (%) 14.10 16.10 18.10 20.00
2 Metabolizable energy (kcal/Kg) 2818 2823 2820 2824
3 ME: C.P ratio 200.00 173.38 157.35 140.95
4 Crude fibre (%) 8.02 7.45 6.85 6.26
5 Ether extract (%) 2.49 2.59 2.66 3.44
6 Calcium (%) 1.21 1.23 1.24 1.26
7 Available Phosphorus (%) 0.43 0.44 0.44 0.46
8 Lysine (%) 1.03 1.06 1.04 1.10
9 Methionine (%) 0.43 0.46 0.49 0.41
10 Linoleic acid (%) 0.85 0.86 0.85 0.99

Statistical analysis of age, higher body weight of 895.81±16.11 g was

The data collected on various parameters were
grouped and subjected for statistical analysis of variance
(ONE WAY ANOVA) as per the procedure of statistical
analysis system (SPSS, version 20.0 for windows). All
the percentage values in the study were transformed to
their arcsine roots before subjecting to statistical analysis.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Body weight
The effect of different levels of crude protein on
body weight (g) of Kadaknath chicken from 0 to 12 weeks
of age is presented in Table 2.The day old Kadaknath
chick weight in T1, T2, T3 and T4 were 31.89±0.32,
31.94±0.31, 32.22±0.31 and 32.44±0.36 g, respectively
and not significant among treatment groups. At 12th week
recorded in group fed with 20% CP (T4) followed by
851.33±16.20 g, 791.10±13.55 g and 689.65±14.53 g
in groups received 18% (T3), 16% (T2) and 14% (T1)
CP respectively. The inclusion of different crude protein
levels had increasing trends on the body weight among
the treatments and showed highly significant (Pd 0.01)
results from 1 to 12 weeks of age.. The present finding
are in agreement with the findings of Gupta et al. (2016),
who found when Kadaknath chicken when fed with
20.06 and 19.43% CP had final body weight of 901.67 g
and 867.0 g, respectively. From this study, it was found
that the inclusion of different crude protein levels had
increasing trends on the body weight and highly
significant (Pd 0.01) from 1 to 12 weeks of age and
these results are coinciding well with the findings of

270 / Indian Journal of Poultry Science (2022) 57(3): 269−273

 Table 2: Effect of different levels of crude protein on body weight (g) of Kadaknath chicken from 0 to 12 weeks of age (Mean±SE)
Treatment Age in weeks
(CP level) 0 Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
T1(14%) 31.89 50.02a 86.52a 121.17a 160.71a 236.92a 313.16a 387.63a 483.16a 543.68a 593.63a 630.81a 689.65a
±0.32(60) ±0.87(60) ±1.51(60) ±2.16(60) ±2.86(60) ±4.26(60) ±5.72(59) ±6.85(59) ±8.75(59) ±9.31(59) ±12.19(59) ±12.02(59) ±14.53(59)
T2(16%) 31.94 50.68ab 86.86a 129.03b 171.04b 248.38ab 328.68a 404.48a 523.38b 574.21a 631.58a 707.70b 791.10b
±0.31(60) ±0.81(60) ±1.56(60) ±2.15(60) ±2.89(60) ±3.84(60) ±4.86(60) ±5.77(60) ±7.62(60) ±8.75(60) ±9.88(60) ±12.30(60) ±13.55(60)
T3(18%) 32.22 52.83b 94.37b 135.09b 178.35b 258.05b 349.80b 434.36b 559.06c 625.00b 694.80b 761.26b 851.33c
±0.31(60) ±1.01(60) ±1.90(60) ±2.72(60) ±2.81(60) ±3.89(60) ±5.12(60) ±6.02(60) ±7.86(60) ±9.31(60) ±11.31(60) ±17.78(60) ±16.20(60)
T4(20%) 32.44 55.69c 99.24c 143.82c 190.82c 284.98c 356.91b 450.20b 573.51c 630.96b 736.32c 795.51c 895.81d
±0.36(60) ±0.9(60) ±1.93(60) ±2.86(60) ±3.53(60) ±5.09(60) ±6.94(60) ±7.69(60) ±9.81(60) ±10.69(60) ±12.77(60) ±14.00(60) ±16.11(60)
F Value 0.598NS 7.76** 12.56** 14.71** 17.34** 22.68** 11.31** 16.80** 20.02** 16.51** 25.09** 20.72** 31.81**
Figure in the parenthesis indicate number of observations / treatment. NSNot significant, **Significant (P<0.01).
Means bearing different superscripts within a column differ significantly (P<0.01).

Table 3: Effect of different levels of crude protein on cumulative body weight gain (g) of Kadaknath chicken from 1 to 12 weeks of age (Mean±SE)
Treatment Age in weeks
(CP level) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
T1(14%) 18.12a 54.63a 89.28a 128.82a 205.03a 281.27a 355.74a 451.27a 511.79a 561.74a 598.92a 657.76a
±0.77(60) ±1.44(60) ±2.08(60) ±2.72(60) ±4.14(60) ±5.77(59) ±7.26(59) ±9.67(59) ±11.52(59) ±13.54(59) ±13.70(59) ±16.36(59)
T2(16%) 18.74ab 54.92a 97.09b 139.10b 216.44ab 296.74a 372.54a 491.44b 542.27b 599.64b 675.76b 759.16b
±0.68(60) ±1.47(60) ±2.05(60) ±2.81(60) ±3.75(60) ±4.78(60) ±5.71(60) ±7.55(60) ±8.71(60) ±9.99(60) ±12.29(60) ±13.55(60)
T3(18%) 20.61b 62.15b 102.87b 146.13b 225.83b 317.58b 402.14b 526.84c 592.78c 662.58c 729.04c 819.11c
±0.87(60) ±1.77(60) ±2.58(60) ±2.70(60) ±3.79(60) ±4.99(60) ±5.91(60) ±7.76(60) ±9.22(60) ±11.23(60) ±13.35(60) ±16.17(60)
T4(20%) 23.25b 66.8c 111.38c 158.38c 252.54c 324.47b 417.76b 541.07c 598.52c 703.88d 763.07c 863.37d
±0.89(60) ±1.82(60) ±2.75(60) ±3.46(60) ±5.00(60) ±6.87(60) ±7.59(60) ±9.75(60) ±9.67(60) ±12.26(60) ±13.75(60) ±16.04(60)
F value 7.99** 13.00** 15.24** 17.78** 23.22** 12.13** 17.66** 21.01** 19.88** 28.75** 28.97** 32.63**
Figure in the parenthesis indicate number of observations / treatment.
**Significant (P<0.01).
Means bearing different superscripts within a column differ significantly (P<0.01).

Indian Journal of Poultry Science (2022) 57(3): 269−273 / 271

Balakumar et al. / Dietary Protein and Kadaknath performance
Balakumar et al. / Dietary Protein and Kadaknath performance

Table 4: Effect of different levels of crude protein on cumulative feed consumption (g) of Kadaknath chicken from 1 to 12 weeks of age (Mean±SE), (n=3 observation / treatment)
Rathod et al. (2018), Hidayat and Iskandar (2019),

3386.31
3478.46

3481.59
±32.89

±36.64

±39.25
±40.23
3384.09

3.41NS
Tesfaye et al. (2019), (Candrawati, 2020) and

12
Ravivarman (2021) in native and synthetic chickens.
Cumulative body weight gain
The effect of different levels of crude protein on

2846.35
2883.98
2931.71

2947.83
±23.17

±32.12

±31.75
cumulative body weight gain (g) of Kadaknath chicken

±30.23

4.18NS
11
from 1 to 12week of age is presented in Table 3. The
cumulative body weight gain (g) showed highly
significant (Pd 0.01) among all the treatment groups.
The highest cumulative body weight gain (863.37±16.04

2341.22
2351.56

2379.96
2303.49
±20.74

±21.34

±22.22
±20.35

4.67NS
10
g) was recorded in group fed with 20% CP followed by
18% (819.11±16.17 g), 16% (759.16±13.55 g) and 14%
(657.76±16.36 g) CP fed groups at 12th week of age.
The present result is agreement with Rathod et al. (2018),

1836.21
1879.81

1909.96
1798.49
±19.43

±18.75

±21.23
±20.52

2.00NS
who found a significant difference in weight gain of

9
805.9, 802.22 and 814.02 g/bird in Kadaknath chicken
fed with 18, 19 and 20% CP at 14th week of age,
respectively.

1477.88
1486.97

1509.96
1448.49
±18.21

±17.53

±17.11
±14.27

1.08NS
Cumulative feed consumption

8
The effect of different levels of crude protein on
cumulative feed consumption (g) of Kadaknath chicken
was recorded from 1 to 12 week of age is presented in Age in weeks

1181.39

1204.96
1143.49
Table 4. Among various inclusions of crude protein levels

±16.59

±15.74

±18.25
±16.83
172.88

1.07NS
7
in the fed, there was a highly significant (P<0.01)
difference in cumulative feed consumption were observed
up to 4 weeks and thereafter no significant difference
was recorded upto 12th week of age. At the end of 12th
±12.10

±11.74

±12.40
±13.12
875.81

899.96
867.05

838.49

1.07NS
week, the cumulative feed consumption was
6

3481.59±39.25 g, 3384.09±40.23 g, 3386.31±36.64 g

and 3478.46±32.89 g in groups fed with 20, 18, 16 and
14% CP respectively. Similar to our finding, Deo et al.
664.72

648.70

654.96
658.15

2.49NS
±8.95

±9.23

±9.54
±8.75

(2014) and Kamble et al. (2018) also observed no

Means bearing different superscripts within a column differ significantly (P<0.01).

5

significant difference in feed intake between treatment

groups with three different levels of crude protein and
energy from 0-12 weeks in Kadaknath chicken.
509.96bc

12.10**
514.56c

499.71a

506.16b

Feed conversion ratio

±1.30

±1.47

±2.55
±2.93
4

The effect of different levels of crude protein on

feed conversion ratio of Kadaknath chicken was observed
from 1 to 12 week of age is presented in Table 5. Highly
significant difference (P<0.01) in feed conversion ratio
304.61ab

11.68**
315.64c

301.53a

309.56b
±1.30

±1.47

±2.41
±2.93

(FCR) was recorded between different treatment groups

3

in all weeks, except 4th, 5th, 6th and 11th week which had
significant difference (P<0.05). Among the various
treatment groups, T4 group fed with 20% CP showed
148.15ab

150.66bc

12.11**
Not significant, **Significant (P<0.01).
155.16c

143.54a
±1.49

±1.52

±2.61

±2.98

lowest feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 4.03±0.08

2

followed by 4.13±0.12, 4.46±0.13 and 5.29±0.25 in

groups fed with 18 (T3), 16 (T 2), and 14 (T1)% CP
respectively. The present findings is on par with Kamble
12.64**
52.62b

47.23a

45.95a

48.21a

et al. (2018) who studied the effect of various protein

±0.42

±0.64

±1.25

±0.69
1

diets on growth performance of Kadaknath chickens

during starter phase and observed a feed efficiency of
3.70 in group fed with 21% CP diet.
Liveability
Treatment
(CP level)
T1(14%)

T2(16%)

T3(18%)

T4(20%)

The per cent liveability of Kadaknath chicken fed

F value

with various level of crude protein did not show any

NS

272 / Indian Journal of Poultry Science (2022) 57(3): 269−273

 Balakumar et al. / Dietary Protein and Kadaknath performance

significant difference till 12th week of age and 100 per cent livability was

2.90 ±0.13 2.84 ±0.07 3.54 ±0.08 3.99 ±0.02 3.24 ±0.09 3.11 ±0.14 3.32 ±0.10 3.30 ±0.13 3.67 ±0.06 4.19 ±0.04 4.89 ±0.12 5.29c±0.25
4.46a±0.13
4.13a±0.12
4.03a±0.08
Table 5: Effect of different levels of crude protein on feed conversion ratio (FCR) of Kadaknath chicken from 1 to 12 weeks of age (Mean±SE), (n=3 observation / treatment)

12.89**
12 observed in T2, T3 and T4 groups, except T1 (98.33±1.66). The mortality
observed in T1 group at 6th week of age and the cause for the mortality was
non-specific and not related with treatment effect, which agreed well with
earlier findings of Rathod et al. (2018) who found no significant effect on
4.27a ±0.15
3.90a±0.10
3.86a±0.10
mortality in Kadaknath chicken fed with varying levels of protein (17, 18, 19

14.57*
11

and 20%) and noted no significant effect on mortality per cent in all treatment
b

groups. They also claimed that the cause of mortality could not be attributed
to varying protein inclusion level. Similarly, Miah et al. (2013) also observed
3.90b±0.05
3.48a±0.11
3.38a±0.05

100 per cent livability in desi chicken on inclusion of varying protein levels of
26.88**
10

17, 19 and 15% in the feed from 12-20 week of age.

c

CONCLUSION
The present study concluded that feeding Kadaknath birds with diet
3.39b ±0.08

3.19a ±0.04
3.03ab±0.1

12.75**

having 20 per cent crude protein and 2800 Kcal ME/Kg up to 12 weeks of
9
c

age is optimum to elicit best growth performance in terms of body weight,

body weight gain and feed conversion ratio.
3.01a±0.03
2.75a±0.08
2.79a±0.06

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
7.80**
8

The authors acknowledge the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences
b

University, Chennai-51for providing all facilities to do the Master Research.

Age in weeks

3.15bc±0.11

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2.84a±0.06
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1
c
Treatment
(CP level)
T1(14%)
T2(16%)
T3(18%)
T4(20%)
F Value

Indian Journal of Poultry Science (2022) 57(3): 269−273 / 273