The study determined the effects of dietary crude fiber (CF) levels on the production performance of male Ross 308 broiler and indigenous Venda chickens. There were 360 male Ross 308 broiler and male Venda chickens aged 1-21 for Phase 1 and 196 chickens aged 22-42 days for Phase 2. Chickens were allocated four diets with different levels of CF (3, 4, 5, and 7%) in a completely randomized design. Quadratic regression analyses were used to determine the dietary CF levels for the optimal production responses. In Phase 1, the feed intake, growth, live weight, nitrogen retention, and metabilizable energy (ME) intake of the Ross 308 broiler chickens were improved at dietary CF levels of 3.9, 4.5, 4.5, 3.2, and 3.7%, respectively. In the Venda chickens, feed intake, growth, live weight, nitrogen retention, and ME intake were optimized at 4.4, 4.8, 4.7, 4.1, and 3.3% CF, respectively. In Phase 2, the feed intake, nitrogen retention, and neutral detergent fiber digestibility (NDFD) were enhanced at CF levels of 6.4, 4.4, and 3.7% in the Ross 308 broiler chickens, respectively. Dietary CF levels of 4.5, 5.8, 5.7, 5.1, 3.9, and 4.4% optimized the feed intake, growth rate, live weight, nitrogen retention, NDF, and ADFD, respectively, in Venda chickens. It was concluded that the indigenous Venda chickens coped better with higher dietary CF than the Ross 308 broiler chickens.
Keywords: growth rate; indigenous; neutral detergent fiber digestibility.