Influência do peso inicial de pintos de corte sobre o desempenho e o rendimento de carcaça de frangos e a viabilidade econômica da produção

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of body weight (BW) of 1-d chicks on performance, yields of carcass and prime cuts and economic viability. One thousand, nine hundred and eight-four AGRoss 308 chicks (males and females) with different initial BW (32, 35, 40 and 49 g) were allotted to a randomized block design with a 2 x 4 (two sexes and four initial BW) factorial arrangement with eight treatments, four replicates and 62 birds per experimental per plot. Data were submitted to variance analyses and the means, compared by Tukey test (5%). No significant sex ´ chick initial BW interaction was observed. Males showed better performance than females in all treatments and periods. Treatment effect on body weight, weight gain and feed intake was noticed in all periods. It was also observed treatment effect on productive efficiency index (the heaviest chicks showed the best performance results at 47 days of age), but there was no effect on yields of carcass and prime cuts. Regarding the economic viability, the heavier chicks showed the best results.