Maternal supplementation of trace mineral minerals

Trace minerals Zn, Cu and Mn play important roles in poultry production. The objective of this study was to determine maternal supplementation of different levels bis-chelated trace mineral on breeder production and progeny growth and gut health. A total of 640 50-wk old Cobb female broiler breeders were randomly assigned to 5 dietary treatments with 8 cages of 8 hens/cage for 12 wks: No supplemental trace minerals (CON); inorganic trace minerals Zn:Cu:Mn at 110:10:120 ppm in sulfate (ITM100); and 3 levels of Zn:Cu:Mn from mineral methionine hydroxy analog chelate (MMHAC): 27.5: 2.5:30 ppm (MMHAC25), 55:5:60 ppm (MMHAC50) and 110:10:120 ppm (MMHAC100). The progeny hatched from eggs laid at wk 12 in each maternal treatment were allotted randomly into 10 cages of 10 chicks each, fed the same diet for 28 d. All birds were orally gavaged 30× recommended dose of coccidia vaccine on d14. Data were subject to one-way ANOVA and contrasts were used to compare CON or ITM100 with other treatments. In the breeders, MMHAC50 tended to increase (P< 0.1) egg production per pen housed compared to ITM100 and settable egg production per hen-day compared to CON during wk 9-12. Compared to CON and ITM100, MMHAC 50 and MMHAC100 tended to (P< 0.1) increase fertility of settable eggs, MMHAC25 and MMHAC50 (P < 0.05) increased first-grade chick percentage. On wk 12, compared to CON, all MMHAC treatments increased (P< 0.05) eggshell breaking strength; compared to CON and ITM, MMHAC25 and MMHAC50 (P< 0.05) increased eggshell weight, MMHAC25 (P< 0.05) increased eggshell thickness. In progeny, there was no difference in d1 body weight, body weight gain and feed intake. MMHAC50 (P < 0.05) improved FCR during d1-21 and tended to (P< 0.1) improve FCR during d1-28 compared to CON and ITM100. MMHAC50 and MMHAC100 (P < 0.05) decreased serum IFN-γ level compared to CON, and all maternal MMHAC treatments (P < 0.05) decreased serum IL-10 level compared to ITM100 on d 21. In conclusion, feeding broiler breeders MMHAC Zn, Cu, and Mn at 50% ITM levels (MMHAC50) demonstrated the most consistent benefits in both breeder and progeny, it not only improved the reproductive performance of broiler breeders, but also carried over the effect to progeny by improving growth performance and reducing inflammation.

Key Words: breeder production, bis-chelated trace minerals, gut health, maternal supplementation, progeny

Trace mineral minerals Zn, Cu and Mn play important roles in breederproduction and progeny performance. The objective of this study was todetermine maternal supplementation of trace mineral minerals on breederproduction and progeny growth and development. Five hundred fortybreeders were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments with 15 pens of12 birds/pen at d1 of age and 4 birds/pen during production phase (24-66 wks): (1) inorganic trace minerals in sulfate (ITM), (2) mineral methionine hydroxy analog chelate (MMHAC) and (3) mineral amino acidcomplex (OTM) with 100:16:100, 50:8:50, and 50:8:50 ppm Zn:Cu:Mn,respectively. When females were 20 wks of age, 40 males at the same agewere placed to the same treatments. Breeder production, gut heath and eggquality were measured. At 28 wks of age, eggs from breeder treatmentswere hatched for progeny trial, 10 pens with 6 males and 6 female birdsper pen were fed a common diet with ITM for 45d. Growth performanceand gut health parameters were measured in progeny. Data were analyzedby one-way ANOVA, means were separated by Fisher’s protected LSDtest. A P-Value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically different. In the hens,MMHAC improved (P < 0.01) egg yolk color vs ITM and OTM at 40,50, 58 and 65 wks, increased (P < 0.01) eggshell thickness and resistancevs OTM at 58 wks, and reduced (P< 0.05) jejunal NF-kB gene expression vs OTM at 24 wks. MMHAC numerically (0.05< P< 0.1) improvedegg production % vs ITM at 24-66 weeks and OTM was not differentfrom MMHAC and ITM. In progeny, MMHAC increased (P < 0.0001)BW vs ITM and OTM at hatch, reduced (P< 0.05) FI vs ITM at d14 and28, and improved (P< 0.01) FCR and performance index vs OTM at d28.MMHAC reduced (P< 0.01) NF-kB gene expression vs OTM on d0 andreduced (P< 0.01) NF-kB and IL1b gene expression vs ITM on d14 inprogeny jejunum, which is probably caused by the upregulation (P< 0.05)of A20 gene expression. These results suggest that supplementation ofchelated trace minerals MMHAC in the breeder diet not only increasedbreeder production and egg quality and decreased jejunal inflammation,but also carry over to the progeny by improving growth performance and reducing jejunal inflammation in comparison to ITM and mineral amino acid complex.

Key Words: breeder production, chelated trace minerals, gut health, maternal supplementation, progeny.