Spray-dried plasma improves feed conversion
Published: June 17, 2014
By: M. M. Bhuiyan 1, Cadogan, D.J 2 and Assoc. Prof. Paul Iji 1 (1 University of New England, 2 Feedworks Pty Ltd)
Spray-dried blood plasma is a highly digestible protein source containing immunoglobulins, growth factors, biologically active peptides, enzymes and other factors that are biologically active in the gut. Bovine SDP has been shown to produce improved growth rate, feed intake, feed efficiency and produce superior breast yield in broilers. Porcine SDP has been used in piglet starter diets to improve feed intake, growth rate and feed efficiency. There is limited information on the use of PSDP in broiler feed.
An experiment was conducted to compare performance of broilers fed diets supplemented with 2 levels of both plasmas. Two hundred and forty d-old male Ross 308 broiler chicks were divided equally among five treatments with six replications consisting of eight birds in each cage as an experimental unit. A wheat- soy based basal diet with an AME of 2880 kcal/kg, d. lys 1.25 g/kg and d. m+c 9.4 g/kg was prepared and supplemented with 5g/kg and 10 g/kg of each plasmas to make five treatment diets as shown in Table 1.
An experiment was conducted to compare performance of broilers fed diets supplemented with 2 levels of both plasmas. Two hundred and forty d-old male Ross 308 broiler chicks were divided equally among five treatments with six replications consisting of eight birds in each cage as an experimental unit. A wheat- soy based basal diet with an AME of 2880 kcal/kg, d. lys 1.25 g/kg and d. m+c 9.4 g/kg was prepared and supplemented with 5g/kg and 10 g/kg of each plasmas to make five treatment diets as shown in Table 1.
The treatment diets were offered for the first 10 d, after which the birds were transferred on to commercial grower (11-24 d) and finisher (25-35 d) diets. Results are shown in Table 1 and Figure 1. Inclusion of both plasmas at both levels up to 10 d had no significant impact on feed intake and bodyweight gain in broilers at various stages of growth (p>0.05). However Porcine plasma supplementation at both levels during the starter phase improved FCR (p<0.05) by 5 and 3 points respectively and by 8-10 points at d 35. Inclusion of Bovine plasma at both levels improved FCR by 11-14 points at d 35.
This study showed it is possible to gain 8-14 points FCR in finishing broilers through inclusion of plasma in broiler starter diets. While plasma is high cost, it was used for the first 10 days only, and the large FCR improvements are likely to make this practice economic.
Further, the higher inclusion level did not give a better response than the lower level and therefore 5 g/kg would appear to be a more economic inclusion level to use.
This revised version appears in the Asian Poultry Magazine, May 2014. Engormix thanks for this contribution.
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