Indian Journal of Animal Research

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Full Research Article

Modulating the Growth Curve in Broiler Chicken through Varying Balanced Protein Regimen (All Step-up, Designed to Get Compensatory Responses)

B. Rashid*,1, T.N. Pasha1, Saima1, A. Mahmud2
1Department of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Animal Production and Technology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore 54000, Pakistan.
2Department of Poultry Production, Faculty of Animal Production and Technology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore 54000, Pakistan.

ABSTRACT

Background: Compensatory growth is a well-established characteristic even in broiler chicken having very short grow-out cycle. Feeding manipulations that take advantages of compensatory growth after a period of nutrient restriction might be beneficial to poultry industry.

Methods: In total, 1400 one-day-old straight run broiler chicks (Hubbard) were allocated to 8 experimental treatments, replicated 7 times with 25 chicks in each, in a completely randomized design. The 3 isocaloric corn soybean meal experimental diets;  a high BP (HBP) with 1.2% standardized ileal digestible lysine (SID Lys), a medium BP (MBP) with 1.1% SID Lys and a low BP (LBP) 1.0% SID Lys, were offered in starter, grower and finisher phases, as HML (conventional) and  LHH, MHH, LMM, MMH, LLM, LLH and LMH as all steps-up.

Result: Greater (P<0.05) BW and BWG were observed in HML groups during all phases. The MMH group had greater FI (P<0.05) during grower and finisher phases. The HML group had better FCR (P<0.05) during starter and grower phases. The LMM group had heavier (P<0.05) abdominal fat pad, whereas, MHH and HML groups had greater (P<0.05) dressed carcass, breast meat, drumstick and thigh yield. The MHH and HML groups, similarly, had higher (P<0.05) spleen, thymus, bursa weights, greater antibody titers against NDV and IBDV and total protein concentration. The LLH group had greater (P<0.05) blood glucose, urea and total cholesterol concentrations. It is, therefore, recommended that HBP (1.2% SID Lys) should be gradually step down to LBP (1.10% SID Lys) for efficient and sustainable production of broiler chicken. 

INTRODUCTION

The modern broiler chicken has greater growth rates, better FCR and rapid metabolic rates boosting their sensitivity to nutritional disorders including sudden death syndrome, myopathies and ascites (Ebeid et al., 2022). Quantitative and qualitative feed restriction programs are used to modulate the growth curve and metabolic rates to alleviate the incidence of metabolic disorders and decrease the cost of production (Sahraei, 2014; Aziz et al., 2021). The qualitative feed restriction may involve the modification of diet composition in particularly protein, energy and/or fiber (Sahraei, 2014).

Compensatory growth is a well-established characteristic in most farm animals, even in broiler chicken having very short grow-out cycle. Compensatory growth refers to the period of rapid growth, relative to age, exhibited by mammals and birds after a period of nutritional restriction. Feed restriction provides opportunity to take advantage of compensatory growth (Gobane et al., 2021). The tendency of broilers to show compensatory growth suggested an opportunity to modulate the dietary concentration of balanced protein during different phases to optimize overall performance (Aftab, 2012). It has been observed that male broilers fed low protein diet in first phase reimbursed their lower initial body weight (Eits et al., 2003). These findings strongly suggested that protein concentrations in grower and finisher diets should be optimized simultaneously. Therefore, the current trial was planned to evaluate the performance of broilers by modulating growth curve through varying BP regimen under conventional all step-up phase feeding designed to get compensatory growth.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The trial was executed at Department of Animal Nutrition, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore Pakistan for 35 days. In total, 1400 one-day-old straight run broilers (Hubbard) were allocated to eight experimental treatments, replicated 7 times with 25 broilers each, in a completely randomized design. The three isocaloric corn soybean meal experimental diets (Table 1); a high BP (HBP) with 1.2% standardized Ileal digestible lysine (SID Lys), a medium BP (MBP) with 1.1% SID Lys and a low BP (LBP) 1.0% SID Lys, were offered in starter (1-10 days), grower (11-25 days) and finisher (26-35 days) phases, as HML (conventional, HBP for 1-10d, MBP for 11-25d and LBP for 26-35 days), LHH (LBP for 1-10d and HBP for 11-35d), MHH (MBP for 1-10d and HBP for 11-35d), LMM (LBP for 1-10d and MBP for 11-35d), MMH (MBP for 1- 25d and HBP for 26-35d), LLM (LBP for 1-25d and MBP for 26-35d), LLH (LBP for 1-25d and HBP for 26-35d) and LMH (LBP for 1-10d, MBP for 11-25d and HBP for 26-35d) as all step-up phase feeding to get compensatory growth.

Table 1: Dietary ingredients and nutrient composition of the experimental diets (% as fed basis).



The birds were reared in an environmentally controlled house and offered ad-libitum feed and water throughout the experimental period. The birds were immunized against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) (Ceva-Phylaxia, Budapest, Hungry) in drinking water on day 2nd, 14th and 28th of age and on day 2nd and 14th against infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) (Lohman Animal Health GmbH, Cuxhaven, Germany). The recommended management conditions were followed as per guidelines of Hubbard broiler management guide (2009).

The composition of the dietary treatments was evaluated (AOAC, 2016). The data regarding growth performance including body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI) and FCR were measured at the end of each phase. At the 35th day of trial, three broiler chicken from each pen were arbitrarily selected and 5 ml blood was collected by puncturing wing vein, serum harvested and was used to determine the concentration of glucose, cholesterol (mg/dl) and antibody titers against NDV and IBDV by procedures described by Waqas et al., (2019). The total protein (g/dl) (Biuret Method cat # 157004) and urea (mg/dl) were also measured (Berthelot Method cat # 10505). The selected birds were slaughtered by Halal method and carcasses were processed to determine weights of dressed carcass, breast meat, abdominal fat, thigh and drumstick and immune organs including thymus, spleen and bursa of fabricius (Raju et al., 2022). The values were expressed as percentage of live BW. The breast samples were used to determine proximate composition including DM, CP, ether extract and crude ash with the procedure described by Gnanaraj et al., (2020).

Data were analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique in a completely randomized design (Steel et al., 1997) in SAS (version 9.1; SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC). Means were declared statistically significant at P<0.05 and compared using Duncan multiple range (DMR) test (Duncan, 1955).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 2: Effects of the varying balanced protein regimen (all steps-up) on growth performance in the broiler chicken1 at different phases of the experiment.

Table 2 represents the influence of experimental diets on growth performance of broilers. Greater (P<0.05) BW and BWG were observed in HML group during the starter, grower and finisher phases. The BWG, however, was not influenced by the dietary treatments in finisher phase. The MMH group had greater FI (P<0.05), at par with LLM and LLH groups during the grower phase. The MMH group, similarly, had higher (P<0.05) FI during the finisher phase. The FI, however, was not influenced during starter phase. The HML group had better (P<0.05) FCR during the starter phase. During grower phase, moreover, the HML group had better FCR (P<0.05) at par with the LHH LMH LMM and MHH groups. These results are in agreement with the results reported by Faluyi et al., (2015). These later authors reported that the broiler chicken fed higher (1.14%) Lys had BW and BWG compared with control group. In contrast to these results it has been reported that supplemental Lys (110 and 120% of strain recommendations) did not influence the growth performance in broiler chicken (Sigolo et al., 2019). These results are in agreement to the previous work reported by Jalal and Zakaria (2012) but incongruent to the work done by Pinheiro et al., (2004). The groups fed MBP and HBP after LBP and MBP diets had slightly improved BWG that is in agreement to findings of Camacho et al., (2004). These later authors reported that BWG was not completely recovered in broiler chicken fed LBP diets in first phase. Due to low density diets bird FI was higher which resulted in poor FCR. It was principally because of the fact that for first phase, LBP diet was utilized by the birds to sustain their BW resulting in slow growth. This leads to a higher feed: gain ratio (Saleh et al., 2005).

Carcass characteristics and composition

The influences of the dietary treatments on the carcass characteristics and composition are presented in Table 3.

Table 3: Effects of varying balanced protein regimen (all steps-up) on carcass characteristics and composition in the broilers chicken1.

The MHH and HML groups had higher (P<0.05) dressed carcass, breast meat and drumstick yield. The LMM group, however, had heavier (P<0.05) abdominal fat pads. The HML and MHH group had greater (P<0.05) relative weights of thigh. The greater relative weights of thigh may be attributed to the higher BW in these groups since the relative weight was calculated as % of the BW. These results are incongruent the previous studies (Jalal and Zakaria, 2012). The dressing percentage was significantly decreased by feeding of LBP in first phase. Quantitative breast, leg quarters and wing yield were significantly lower. The greater (P<0.05) relative weights of spleen, thymus and bursa of Fabricius were recorded in MHH and HML groups. These results are in line with those reported by Sigolo et al., (2019). These later authors stated that Lys supplementation (110% of strain recommendations) increased the relative weight of bursa of Fabricius in broilers. Mulyantini (2014) similarly, reported that broiler chicken fed greater Lys levels had higher weights of thymus and bursa of Fabricius. Ghoreyshi et al., (2019), similarly reported that the broiler chicken fed greater Lys levels (130% of NRC recommendations) had higher spleen weight, whereas, the weights of thymus and bursa of Fabricius remained unaffected by the experimental diets. The dietary treatments did not affect (P>0.05) carcass composition in the broilers.

Serum metabolites and antibody titers

The impacts of the dietary treatments on the serum metabolites and antibody titers in the broiler chicken are presented in Table 4.

Table 4: Effects of varying balanced protein regimen (all steps-up) on the selected blood metabolites and antibody titers in the broilers chicken1.

The greater (P<0.05) blood glucose and urea concentration were recorded in LLH group. The LLH group, moreover, had elevated (P<0.05) total cholesterol concentration. The HML and MHH groups, however, had higher (P<0.05) total protein concentration. Sigolo et al., (2019) reported that broiler chicken fed greater Lys (110 and 120% of strain recommendations) had higher blood glucose levels, whereas the cholesterol level was not influenced by the Lys supplementation. These results are in consistent to the previous work done by Boostani et al., (2010). Chronic stress due to feeding of LBP diets in first phase leads to increased plasma corticosterone concentrations. The variations in corticosterone excretion are because of the metabolic effect of low density feed (De Jong et al., 2002). Corticosterone is involved in the regulation of glucose, urea and cholesterol level in blood. The greater levels of serum glucose in restricted-fed birds can be due to improved nutrients absorption and FCR. Hypoglycemia during restriction can be stopped by glucose production via gluconeogenesis (Boostani et al., 2010). These results are in disagreement to Rezaei and Hajati (2010) who had reported non-significant effect on protein with LBP or HBP in any growing phase.

The greater (P<0.05) antibody titers against NDV and IBDV were observed in MHH and HML groups. These findings are in line with those reported by Faluyi et al., (2015). These later authors stated that the broiler chicken fed greater Lys (1.13%) had better antibody titers against NDV. Ghoreyshi et al., (2019) similarly reported that broiler chicken fed greater Lys levels had higher immune response against NDV and IBDV. A HBP diet promotes the development of immunological organs (Attia et al., 2017). Antibodies are proteins, therefore, any deficiency of Lys, particularly during the growth of chickens, results in poor immune competence since it affects the magnitude of immune response (Kidd, 2004).

The economics of the feeding of the various balanced protein regimes (all step up) in the broiler chicken is presented in Table 5.

Table 5: Effects of varying balanced protein regimen (all steps-up) on the economics in the broilers chicken1.

The broiler chicken fed HML diets had greater % profit per kg of the live weight sold among the experimental groups.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the broiler chicken fed HML diets had better growth performance and carcass traits. Moreover, the groups fed HML diets had better immunity and greater profit/ kg of the live weight sold. It is, therefore, recommended that HBP (1.20% SID Lys) should be step down to LBP (1.0% SID Lys) gradually as HML (Starter 1.2%, grower 1.1% and finisher 1.0% SID Lys) for efficient and sustainable production of broiler chicken.

Conflict of interest

None

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