An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary energy level on performance, carcass yield and abdominal fat of broiler chickens. Two thousand and four hundred day-old Ross 308 chicks were raised until 42 days of age in floor pens. The experimental design was a completly randomized in a 6 x 2 factorial design (energy x sex). The treatment was consisted of combinated levels of energy: 2900, 2960, 3020, 3080, 3140 and 3200 kcal/kg ME and sex, with four replicates of 50 birds. From 1 to 42 days of age, feed consumption and feed conversion decreased as energy level increased. Males presented the best performance results than females, except for mortality. There was a linear effect of energy level on percentage abdominal fat and wings, but there was no effect on carcass yield and on all other parts of carcass. Males presented higher total legs and leg meat percentages and lower breast meat and abdominal fat than females.
broilers; carcass yield; dietary energy; performance
