title: Efficacy of pine leaves as an alternative bedding material for broiler chicks during summer season.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to assess the efficacy of pine leaves as an alternative bedding material on the performance of broiler chicks.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study was conducted in summer. Total 120, day old Vencobb straight run chicks were procured, and after 5 days of brooding, chicks were randomly distributed into four treatment groups viz. paddy husk (Group I), paddy straw (Group II), pine leaves (Group III), and combination of paddy straw and pine leaves (Group IV), each having 30 chicks with 3 replicates of 10 chicks each. Chicks were reared under intensive conditions in houses that have a semi-controlled environment, with optimum temperature and adequate ventilation. Food and water were provided as per NRC (1994) requirement.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average body weight after 6 weeks of the experiment was 2018.83±31.11, 1983.80±33.27, 2007.36±35.73, and 1938.43±36.35 g. The bedding type had no significant effect on the carcass characteristics viz. evisceration rate and proportion of cut-up parts of the carcass except giblet yield. The experiment suggested that performance of broiler chicks reared on paddy straw and pine leaves as litter material, had improved body weight and feed conversion ratio as compared to rearing on paddy husk as bedding material. Bacterial count, parasitic load and the N, P, K value of manure of different bedding material shows no significant difference.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pine leaves have a potential to be used as an alternative source of litter material to economize poultry production in a sustainable way, so as to make poultry farming as a profitable entrepreneur.
authors.affiliation: Division of Livestock Production and Management, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Jammu, R.S.Pura, Jammu - 181 102, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
authors.forename: Gourav
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Division of Livestock Production and Management, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Jammu, R.S.Pura, Jammu - 181 102, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
authors.forename: Asma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Division of Livestock Production and Management, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Jammu, R.S.Pura, Jammu - 181 102, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
authors.forename: Surender
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Division of Livestock Production and Management, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Jammu, R.S.Pura, Jammu - 181 102, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
authors.forename: Ashok Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Anand
keywords: litter material; paddy husk; paddy straw; pine leaves