This experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of fasting and early diet composition on broiler chicken's development. The treatments were Control (C), fasted for 24 h (24F), fasted for 48 h (48F), feeding a diet containing 15% egg powder for 24 h (24E) or 48 h (48E), feeding a diet containing 20% glucose syrup for 24 h (24G) or 48 h (48G), and feeding a diet containing 15% egg powder and 20% glucose syrup for 24 h (24EG) or 48 h (48EG). At 7 to 21 days of age, the chicks fed with 48EG diet, had higher (P 0.05) weight gain than both the control and the other experimental groups. In entire experimental period (1-42days) feeding E48 or EG48 resulted in higher weight gain than control group. At 21 to 42 days of age, feeding E24 did result to higher feed intake than control. Over the entire experimental period, the chicks fed both egg powder and glucose syrup had significantly higher (P 0.05) feed intake than control. At 21 days of age, feeding G diet for 48 h resulted in longer duodenum and ileum than other treatments. In addition, longer (P 0.05) jejunum length was found in chicks with GE diet in the first 48 h. The results for morphological parameters show that feeding a diet containing egg powder and glucose syrup for 48 hours resulted in higher duodenum crypt depth (CD) in comparison to chicks fed diet containing egg powder for 48 hours. No access to feed for 48 hours decreased duodenum villous height (VH) and increased (P 0.05) duodenum CD and subsequently decreased VH: CD ratio on day 7. Feeding a diet containing egg powder and glucose syrup for 24 hours resulted in longer VH and lower CD and subsequently higher VH: CD ratio in duodenum on day 7. In conclusion, the present study showed that the diet composition affects chick development post-hatch and feeding a semi-moist diet with high protein and suitable energy levels containing egg powder and glucose syrup for 48 hours post-hatch is beneficial for post-hatch growth and considerable performance benefits than control. Key words: fasting, early diet, broiler, performance
