PAPER TITLE :EFFECT OF DIETARY RARE EARTH ELEMENT ON PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILERS

JOURNAL Of SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY | VOLUME 2 NUMBER 1 2011

Paper Details

  • Author(s) : ADU, O. A., IGBASAN, F.A. and ADEBIYI, O.A
  • Abstract:

240 day old Abor Acre Plus broilers of average weight of 87.8+4.33g were used in a feeding trial that lasted 8 weeks to evaluate the effect of inclusion of different levels of REE (0, 100, 200 and 300ppm Lanthanum Oxide) on the performance, blood serum parameters and carcass/organs characteristics of the animals. The animals were randomly allotted to four treatments of 6 animals per treatment. The initial weight, final weight and fed intake were monitored, recorded and analysed. At the end of the feeding trial, 3 animals from each replicate were sacrificed by stunning, decapitation followed by blood collection for serum analysis and careful evisceration to obtain the organs (gizzard, liver, heart, lung and spleen). Weights of selected organs and tissues collected were recorded.

All data collected was subjected to One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the general linear model. There was significant (p<0.05) difference in the final weight, daily weight gain, daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio. The weight gain increased as the inclusion level of dietary REE increased. Feed conversion for diets 2, 3 and 4 were 5.44, 4.60 and 9.62% higher than the control.

The total protein (4.4-5.28g/dl), albumin (1.8-2.9g/dl), globulin (2.16-2.94g/dl), cholesterol (72.40-87.92mg/dl) were not significantly (p>0.05) different except the blood glucose (122.62-163.4 mg/dl) which were lower in supplemented diets compared to the control.  REE did not influence the carcass characteristics of the birds except for breast muscle (20.16-22.09%), gizzard (2.06-3.00%) and liver (1.47-1.79%).