2017 PSA Annual Meeting

Oral Presentation

Effect of different levels of sorghum inclusion and the addition of a serine protease on live performance of broilers from 1 to 35 days of age.

Albaraa Sarsour*1, Hernan Cordova-Noboa1 , Edgar Oviedo-Rondón1 , Pedro Ferzola1 , Nasser Odetallah2 , 1North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 2Novus International, St. Charles, MO.

Sorghum can be utilized to replace corn in areas where corn is not readily available. Serine protease has been proposed to improve the digestibility of sorghum because it could degrade disulfide bonds of kafirin proteins. One experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of sorghum inclusion level and the addition of a serine protease on chicken live performance from 1 to 35 d of age. Eight treatments from a 4x2 factorial arrangement with 4 inclusion levels of sorghum (0, 25, 50, and 100% replacement of corn) and presence or absence of protease (0 or 500 g/ton for 600,000 U/g), as main factors. A total of 1,280 Ross 708 d-old male chicks were placed in 64 pens with 20 chicks per pen raised on used litter. Group BW and feed intake (FI) were recorded at 0, 14, and 35 d. BW gain and FCR corrected by mortality BW weights were calculated at the end of each phase. Data were analyzed as a randomized complete block design with a 4x2 factorial arrangement with 8 replicates per treatment combination. There was an effect of sorghum level (P < 0.05) on BW at 35 d. The heaviest broilers were associated with the treatments that were fed 100% corn diets which were not different from 25 and 50% sorghum, but were heavier (P < 0.05) than the ones fed 100% sorghum diets. Similar effect (P < 0.05) was observed on BW gain from 14 to 35 d, and BW and FI from 1 to 35 d. There was a 2-way interaction effect (P < 0.05) observed on FI for sorghum level and enzyme. Broilers fed diets with 100% sorghum without the addition of a protease consumed less (P < 0.05) feed than the same diet with the addition of protease. Protease improved FCR in the starter from 1 to 14 d only in diets with 100% corn. This positive effect of protease (P < 0.05) on FCR was detected again from 14 to 35 and 1 to 35 d of age in diets with 100% corn. It was concluded that corn can be replaced with up to 50% sorghum and that the addition of a protease could improve FCR of broilers fed corn diets and FI in 100% sorghum diets.

Key Words: sorghum level, serine protease, broiler performance

Poster Presentation

Effect of chelated copper on growth performance and woody breast in broilers J. Chen, F. Yan, V. Kuttappan, and M. Vazquez Anon Novus International Inc., St. Charles, MO, USA

Copper (Cu) has been widely used at high levels as growth promoter in poultry. The role of Cu in woody breast has not been widely studied. There are different forms of chelated and inorganic Cu sources available for the poultry producers to use at different doses. A floor pen study was conducted with 468 day-old male broilers to evaluate the effects of Cu methionine hydroxyanalogue chelate (Cu-MHAC) (MINTREX® Cu, Novus International, Inc.) on growth performance and incidence of woody breast in broilers in comparison to CuSO4 and TBCC. The study consisted of 4 dietary treatments: 15 ppm Cu-MHAC, 30 ppm Cu-MHAC, 125 ppm CuSO4 and 125 ppm TBCC, each with 9 replicates pens of 13 birds. The levels of other minerals from inorganic sources were equal among all treatments. Nutritionally complete typical US corn soybean meal based broiler diets were formulated for starter (0-14 d), grower (15-28 d), and finisher (29-42 d) phases. All diets were pelleted, and starter diet was crumbled after pelleting. All birds were orally gavaged with a coccidiosis vaccine at 10× the recommended vaccination dose on d 15. Breast fillets in broilers at 42 d of age were scored for woody breast using 4 points scoring system: 0 = normal; 1 = mild; 2 = moderate; 3 = severe. Woody breast results were analyzed by Chi-square. Performance results were analyzed by one-way ANOVA, means were separated by Fisher’s protected LSD test. A P-Value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically different. Both 15 and 30 ppm Cu-MHAC improved (P<0.05) FCR in comparison to CuSO4, and TBCC had intermediate FCR during starter phase. Growth performance was not different among treatments during grower and finisher phases. 15 ppm Cu-MHAC reduced (P<0.05) the incidence of moderate and severe woody breast compared to TBCC; while 30 ppm Cu-MHAC reduced (P<0.05) the incidence of moderate and severe woody breast compared to both CuSO4 and TBCC. In summary, low doses of Mintrex Cu can replace high dose of TBCC and CuSO4 without compromising growth performance and with benefits of reducing the incidence of moderate and severe woody breast in broilers.

Keywords: Chelated copper, CuSO4, TBCC, woody breast, broiler