Influence of mannan oligosaccharide,Ligustrum lucidum and Schisandra chinensis on parameters of antioxidative and immunological status of broilers

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate effects of dietary supplementation with Ligustrum lucidum (LL, 10 g/kg), Schisandra chinensis (SC, 10 g/kg), LL (10 g/kg) + mannan oligosaccharides (MOS, 50 mg/kg), or SC (10 g/kg) + MOS (50 mg/kg) on growth performance and parameters of antioxidative and immunological status of broilers. The results showed that feeding LL, SC, LL + MOS, or SC + MOS had no significant effect on growth performance of broilers relative to the control. However, compared to the control, LL, SC, LL + MOS, or SC + MOS significantly decreased malondialdehyde concentration in serum, thigh, and heart of broilers. In addition, glutathione reductase activity of heart and sera of the birds were significantly elevated by supplementation LL, SC, LL + MOS, or SC + MOS. Furthermore, LL, SC, LL + MOS, or SC + MOS significantly improved antibody titres against Newcastle disease virus and lymphocyte proliferation of broilers (p < 0.05). Whereas, no cooperating effect between LL (or SC) and MOS on antioxidant status and immunity of broilers were found.     

Influence of the provision of natural light and straw bales on activity levels and leg health in commercial broiler chickens

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of natural light and straw bales on activity levels and leg health in commercial broiler chickens. Houses containing ∼23 000 broiler chickens were assigned to one of four treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Treatments involved two levels of access to natural light (NL) (present ‘+NL’, or absent ‘−NL’) and two levels of access to straw bales (SB) (present (30/house) ‘+SB’, or absent ‘−SB’). All houses were windowed and artificially lit, and windows were shuttered where appropriate. Treatments were applied in one of the two houses on each of the two farms, and were replicated over four production cycles. Behaviour was observed in 2 to 6 weeks of the cycle. This involved observations of general behaviour and activity, gait scores (0 (perfect) to 5 (unable to walk)) and latency to lie (measured in seconds from encouraging a bird to stand). Production performance and environmental parameters were also measured. Average daytime light intensity and UV levels in the +NL treatment were 85.2 lx and 3.37 μW/cm², respectively, and in the −NL treatment were 11.4 lx and 0 μW/cm², respectively. Litter moisture levels were lower with NL treatment (P < 0.05), but were not affected by SB (P > 0.05). The percentage of time spent lying was significantly reduced by the provision of NL (P < 0.01), but not by SB (P > 0.05). There were three-way interactions between NL, SB and bird age on the percentage of time spent in locomotion (P < 0.05) and idling (P < 0.05). Both treatment factors had inconsistent effects on these parameters across different weeks. Levels of preening, resting and aggressive behaviour were not affected by treatment (P > 0.05). There was an interaction between treatments in average gait scores, with higher scores in the −NL−SB treatment than in all other treatments, and higher in the −NL+SB treatment than in the +NL treatments (P < 0.001). Average latency to lie was significantly higher with NL (P < 0.001) and SB (P < 0.05). We conclude that environmental modifications have the potential to increase activity levels and improve the leg health of commercial broilers. The light environment appears to be particularly important in this respect.     

The role of organic selenium in cadmium toxicity: effects on broiler performance and health status

This work was part of a project designed to assess whether organic selenium (Se) can protect against the toxic effects of cadmium (Cd). A total of 300 1-day-old, as hatched, broilers were randomly distributed in four dietary treatments with five replicate pens per treatment. In T1 treatment, broilers were fed a diet with 0.3 mg/kg added Se, as Se-yeast, without added Cd; in T2, broilers were fed a diet with 0.3 mg/kg Se and 10 mg/kg Cd; in T3, broilers were fed a diet with 0.3 mg/kg Se and 100 mg/kg of Cd; and in T4 treatment broilers were fed a diet with 3 mg/kg Se and 100 mg/kg Cd. The Cd was added to diets T2, T3 and T4 as CdCl₂. On the 4th and 6th week, two broilers per replicate pen were killed in order to obtain whole blood, liver, kidney and breast samples. Body mass, feed conversion ratio and mortality were assessed and haematological analyses were performed. Se and Cd levels in tissues were analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Broilers supplemented with 0.3 mg/kg Se can tolerate low levels of Cd added to the diets, as there were no significant negative effects on the examined performance parameters, whereas addition of excess Cd led to an impairment of broilers’ performance. Mortality of broilers did not differ between the four dietary treatments at any interval point or the whole period. The examined haematological parameters such as haematocrit, total blood protein concentration, and leukocytes types ranged within physiological values, revealing no negative health effects after simultaneous Cd and Se addition. The present study indicated that Se can help against the negative effects of Cd, but cannot counteract all of its negative effects.     

Comparison of flock characteristics,journey duration and pathology between flocks with a normal and a high percentage of broilers ‘dead-on-arrival’ at abattoirs

This study investigated high mortality in broilers transported to slaughter in Norway by comparing data from flocks with normal and high mortality during transportation. The data sources consisted of necropsy findings in 535 broilers dead-on-arrival (DOA), production data and slaughterhouse data, along with average journey duration for the 61 associated flocks. The mean Norwegian DOA% for 2015 was 0.10. In this study, normal-mortality flocks were defined as flocks with a mean DOA% up to 0.30 and high mortality as flocks with a mean DOA% above 0.30. DOA% was calculated per flock. The most frequent pathological finding was lung congestion which was observed in 75.5% of the DOA broilers. This postmortem finding was significantly more common in broilers from high-mortality flocks (89.3%) than in DOA broilers from normal-mortality flocks (58%). The following variables had a significantly (P<0.05) higher median in the high-mortality flocks: flock size, 1^st week mortality, foot pad lesion score, carcass rejection numbers and journey duration. The results indicate that high broiler mortality during transportation to the abattoir may be linked to several steps in the broiler production chain. The results suggest that preventive measures are to be considered in improvement of health and environmental factors during the production period and throughout the journey duration.     

Effects of dietary calcium and phosphorus deficiency and subsequent recovery on broiler chicken growth performance and bone characteristics

The ability of birds to modify dietary phosphorus utilisation when fed with low-phosphorus and calcium (Ca) diets was studied using different sequences of dietary phosphorus and Ca restriction (depletion) and recovery (repletion) during the grower and the finisher phases. A total of 3600 Ross 708 broilers were randomly divided into 10 replicate pens per treatment (60 per pen, six pens per block). Chicks were fed a common starter diet from days 0 to 10, then a grower control diet (C: 0.90% Ca, 0.39% non-phytate phosphorus, nPP), mid-level diet (M: 0.71% Ca, 0.35% nPP) or low Ca and nPP diet (L: 0.60% Ca, 0.30% nPP) from days 11 to 21, followed by a finisher diet C, M or L containing, respectively, 0.85%, 0.57% or 0.48% Ca and 0.35%, 0.29% or 0.24% nPP from days 22 to 37. Six treatment sequences were tested: CC, MM, LL, ML, LC and LM. Bone mineral content by dual-energy X-ray, tibia ash, toe ash weight and tibia breaking strength were measured on days 21 and 37. No significant effect was observed on growth performance throughout the experiment. Diet L reduced bone mineral content, breaking strength, tibia and toe ash by 9%, 13%, 11% and 10%, respectively, on day 21 (compared with diet C, for linear effect, P<0.05). On day 37, bone mineral content, breaking strength, tibia and toe ash remained lower compared with control values (CC v. MM v. LL, P<0.05 for linear and quadratic effects). Mineral depletion duration (ML v. LL) did not affect bone mineral status. Replenishing with the C diet during the finisher phase (LC) restored bone mineral content, tibia ash and toe ash weight better than the M diet did, but not to control levels (CC v. LC v. LM, for linear effect, P<0.05). These results confirm that dietary Ca and nPP may be reduced in the grower phase without affecting final growth performance or breaking strength as long as the finisher diet contains sufficient Ca and nPP. The practical applications of this strategy require further study in order to optimise the depletion and repletion steps.     

Effect of aluminum sulfate on litter composition and ammonia emission in a single flock of broilers up to 42 days of age

New alternatives are necessary if the environmental impact linked to intensive poultry production is to be reduced, and different litter handling methods should be explored. Among these, acidifying amendments added to poultry litters has been suggested as a management practice to help reduce the potential environmental effect involved in multiple flock cycles. There have been several studies on the use of aluminum sulfate (alum) and its benefits, but almost no data are available under farm conditions in Europe. An experiment with Ross 308 broilers from 1 to 42 days of age was conducted to evaluate the effect of alum on litter composition, the solubility of some mineral elements and NH₃ emission during a single flock-rearing period in commercial houses located in southeast Spain. Broilers were placed on clean wood shavings in four commercial houses, containing 20 000 broilers each. Before filling, alum was applied at a rate of 0.25 kg/m² to the wood shavings of two poultry houses, whereas the remaining two were used as control. Litter from each poultry house was sampled every 3 to 5 days. Ammonia emissions from the poultry houses were monitored from 37 to 42 days of age. In comparison with the control group, alum treatment significantly reduced the pH level of the litter (P < 0.001) with an average difference of 1.32 ± 0.24 units. Alum-treated litter showed, on average, a higher electrical conductivity than the control litter (5.52 v. 3.63 dS/m). The dry matter (DM) and total N and P contents did not show differences between the treatments (P > 0.05). Regarding the NH₄⁺-N content, alum-treated litter showed a higher value than the untreated litter, with an average difference of 0.16 ± 0.07% (on a DM basis). On average, alum-treated litter had lower water-soluble P, Zn and Cu contents than the untreated litter. Alum noticeably reduced the in-house ammonia concentration (P < 0.001), with an average of 4.8 ppm at 42 days of age (62.9% lower than the control), and ammonia emissions from 37 to 42 days of age were significantly reduced by the alum treatment (P < 0.001), representing a reduction of 73.3%. The lower pH values might have reduced ammonia volatilization from the litter, with a corresponding positive effect on the building environment and poultry health. For these reasons, litter amendment with alum could be recommended as a way of reducing the pollution potential of European broiler facilities during a single flock cycle.     

Kadmium — Antimetabolit des Eisens und Zinks

The aim of the present dose response study was to examine the long-term effects of increasing the amounts of rare earth elements (REE) in the diet on growth and slaughtering performance of fattening bulls. A total of 48 bulls of German Holstein with an average initial live weight (LW) of 119 ± 13 kg were divided into four dietary treatment groups (n = 12): a control group and three REE-treated groups, which were fed a supplement of 100, 200 and 300 mg REE-citrate per kg dry matter (DM) containing mainly cerium (57.9%), lanthanum (34.0%) and praseodymium (6.5%). The feeding trial was divided into a growing period for 8 weeks and a fattening period for 39 weeks. The growing diet consisted of concentrate, grass silage and grass hay, while the fattening diet consisted of concentrate and maize silage. The animals were slaughtered at approximately 556 kg LW. The intake of grass hay and maize silage (0.55–0.31 kg/d and 6.09–5.44 kg/d, respectively) decreased linearly (p < 0.05) with increasing REE-citrate supplementation, while LW gain showed only a numerical decrease during the growing (2–4%) and the fattening period (4–5%). The feed-to-gain ratio and ME-to-gain ratio were not significantly affected by REE treatment during the whole feeding trial. The most striking effect of REE on carcass characteristics was a significantly higher dressing percentage in Group C (200 mg REE citrate kg/DM) compared to the other groups, while no effects were found on liver, kidneys, heart, thymus, pancreas, spleen and thyroid gland weights. The digestibility trials with wethers indicate that a supplementation of 300 mg REE-citrate per kg DM to a ration consisting of concentrate and straw does not enhance the digestibility of nutrients. These results suggest that, under the conditions of the present study, the supplementation of fattening bull diets with REE cannot be recommended.