Effect of different lighting regimen on the body weight, FCR, haematological attributes and immunocompetence traits of turkey poults

Sirohi, R., Shukla, P.K., Bhattacharyya, A., Singh, Y., Singh, D.N. and Kumar, Vinod 2020. Effect of different lighting regimen on the body weight, FCR, haematological attributes and immunocompetence traits of turkey poults. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 55(1): 69–73.

A study was conducted to assess the effect of different lighting regimen on the turkey poults. 144 turkey poults of small white variety aged one week were distributed into three treatment groups, each comprising of three replicates of 16 poults. T1 poults were subjected to conventional lighting programme (16L: 8D), T2 poults were subjected to continuous lighting programme (24L: 0D) and T3 poults were subjected to intermittent lighting programme (16L: 3D:2L:3D). The average weekly body weight was significantly higher (P°0.05) in T2 than other two treatment groups at 3^rd and 4^th week of age. Further, T2 group poults had numerically higher body weight compared to the other two treatments. FCR during 1–8 weeks and the overall FCR was significantly better (P°0.05) in continuous lighting programme than conventional and intermittent lighting programmes. No significant difference was observed in haematological attributes. Total immunoglobulins and mercapto-ethanol sensitive (IgM) antibody titer (log₂) values in response to SRBC were significantly higher (P°0.05) in continuous lighting programme than intermittent lighting programme. In conclusion, turkey poults exhibited better growth, FCR and immunity in continuous lighting regimen. Further, there was no adverse effect of continuous lighting regimen in haematological attributes of turkey poults.