Feasibility of rearing broilers in open-sided houses for extended periods: impacts of feed withdrawal approaches on growth, carcass traits, and meat quality metrics

The present study evaluated the feasibility of rearing fast-growing broiler chickens in an open-sided house for 42 days in Bangladesh using different feed withdrawal strategies, with particular emphasis on growth performance, meat quality, survivability, and economic returns. A total of 480 Indian River meat-type day-old chicks (DOCs) were reared up to 42 days and randomly allocated into four treatment groups. The first group was a control that provided ad libitum feeding throughout the production cycle (AdLF). The remaining groups received ad libitum feeding for the first 7 days, followed by daily feed withdrawal for 8 h. Accordingly, the second group was subjected to feed withdrawal from 8 to 28 days (3-WksFW), the third group from 8 to 35 days (4-WksFW), and the fourth group from 8 to 42 days (5-WksFW). Each treatment consisted of six replicates with 20 birds per replicate. Key performance indicators, including body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), survivability, carcass yield, meat quality, and benefit cost ratio (BCR), were evaluated. As expected, the overall BWG was significantly higher in the AdLF group (3170.52 g/bird; P = 0.000), followed by the 3-WksFW (3040.43 g/bird) and 4-WksFW (2878.86 g/bird) groups, with the lowest value observed in the 5-WksFW group (2510.85 g/bird). Similar trends were observed for final BW and FI. Despite the higher BW, BWG, and FI in the AdLF group, feed withdrawal strategies improved survivability, meat quality, and, notably, economic efficiency. The highest BCR was recorded in the 4-WksFW group (1.14), followed by the 3-WksFW (1.07), 5-WksFW (1.07), and AdLF (1.05) groups. FCR was not significantly affected by treatment; however, abdominal fat deposition was reduced in birds subjected to feed withdrawal. Overall, feed withdrawal improved water holding capacity with a significant decreased of cooking loss, although the meat color was unaffected. In conclusion, the 4-WksFW strategy is recommended for rearing broilers up to 42 days in open-sided housing under local conditions, as it optimizes meat quality, survivability, and profitability in small-scale production systems. © 2026 The Authors