Effect of water restriction and sodium levels in the drinking water on broiler performance during the first week of life

Abstract

-A trial was carried out to evaluate the performance of female ROSS 308 broilers, from 1 to 21 days of age, submitted to 20% of water restriction (WR) or ad libitum water and four different sodium levels by adding NaCl to the drinking water (0, 150, 300, or 450 ppm) from 1 to 7 days of age. A control group, with four replications (rep), housed one day before the beginning of the experiment, was used as reference for WR calculation. Two commercial diets where fed from 1 to 7 days and from 8 to 21 days to all birds. The chicks were raised in battery cages. A randomized complete design, in a 2 × 4 factorial arrangement, with four replications/treatment and 14 birds/replicate, was applied. Feed intake (FI), weight gain (WG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) in the first week were influenced by WR. During this period, there was a significant interaction between factors, showing that in chicks not submitted to WR, water consumption increased with sodium levels. Also, at 7 days of age, excreta and carcass dry matter contents were higher in WR animals. During the second week, WR continued to affect FI, but the previously WR broilers presented better FCR, higher WG, and water consumption than the non-WR broilers. Mortality was not affected either by WR or sodium levels. At 21 days of age, except for FI, no significant differences were observed between restricted and non-restricted birds. Sodium levels up to 450 ppm were not toxic to the birds. These results suggested that if optimal conditions are offered, broilers quickly overcome unfavorable circumstances to their growth. Em condições adequadas, frangos de corte conseguem reverter rapidamente circunstâncias adversas a seu crescimento.Palavras-chave: água, aves, crescimento compensatório, minerais R. Bras.

Determination of the Effect of Feeding Different Sodium Chloride Regimes on Growth Performance, Viscera Organ Weights and Meat Quality Parameters of Broilers from Hatch to 35 Days of Age

“…There was a lack of recent studies described the effect of NaCl on viscera organ weights of broilers. However, Castro et al (2009) stated that the dietary Na level did not affect the viscera organ weights of broilers. It is hypothesized that increased size of digestive organs led to improve broiler capacity to ingest and digest the feed.…”

Application of the sub-indicator model to assess the suitability of groundwater for irrigation of livestock in Nimrud district, Nineveh Governorate, Iraq

“…In general, the effect of sodium content in water on animal productivity and health depends on the animal type and age. For example, poultry (especially chicks) tolerate an acceptable level of sodium at 50 ppm, but an increase in this concentration will negatively affect performance, and health and may lead to general paralysis, convulsions violent renal tubular degeneration, and hypertension associated with vascular disease and death (Castro et al, 2009). Also, for sulfate and chloride ions, 100% and 60% of the water samples respectively exceeded the permissible limits for livestock watering ranging between 1,699 ppm and 406 ppm.…”

Risicobeoordeling waterverstrekking aan vleeskuikens en vleeskuikenouderdieren

“…De hoeveelheid water verbruikt door kippen wordt beïnvloed door een aantal factoren (Manning et al, 2007a;2007b), die mogelijk cumulatief of multiplicatief kunnen werken; dergelijke combinaties van factoren zijn echter weinig onderzocht (Castro et al, 2009;Beg et al, 2011). Het is gangbare praktijk om het waterverbruik van de vleeskuikens te controleren door een schatting van het aantal liters per 1000 vleeskuikens per dag (DEFRA, 2002;ACP, 2006).…”

“…De conclusie van deze onderzoekers was dat waterbeperking bij vleeskuikens ongeacht de mate van beperking moet worden vermeden (Viola et al, 2009). Toch is gevonden dat vleeskuikens snel herstellen van waterbeperking in de eerste week wanneer ze normaliter (dus in de rest van hun leven) onder goede omstandigheden gehouden worden (Castro et al, 2009). Wanneer de watergift wordt beperkt kan dat dorst veroorzaken.…”