Effects of placement time on performance and gastrointestinal tract growth of male broiler chickens

Abstract

Non-ruminantsFull-length research article Effects of placement time on performance and gastrointestinal tract growth of male broiler chickens ABSTRACT -The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of placement time on the performance of broiler chickens and the development of their gastrointestinal tract. Two methodologies for measuring broiler performance were compared, one considering day of pulling as the first day, the other considering day of placement as the first day. A total of 1,056 one-day old male Cobb ® 500 broiler chicks were subjected to treatments of different placement times after pulling from the hatchery: 3, 24, 48, and 72 h. The studied traits were: feed intake, body weight, feed conversion, viability, and gastrointestinal tract development. When day of pulling was considered the first day, feed intake and body weight at 39 days decreased as placement time increased. However, when day of placement was considered the first day, fasting up to 72 h did not have any negative effect on broiler performance at 39 days postplacement. Placement time did not affect yolk sac utilization or liver weight. At nine days post-placement, weights of gizzard + proventriculus, pancreas, and small intestine increased with increasing placement time. At seven days of age, there was no effect of placement time on villus height or crypt depth. It is possible to place broiler chicks up to 72 h post-hatching with no negative effects when day of placement is considered the first day for evaluating broiler performance.

Perfomnce, Intestine Morphology And Serum Biochemistry of Broiler Chickens to Delayed Post Hatch Feeding

“…Lower yolk sac percentage at both ages was for chicks that were immediately feed after placement in the rearing hall. Similar results were obtained by (Bhanja et al, 2009: Cardeal et al, 2020 reported that higher yolk sac percent of live body weight was found in birds that were delayed to the access of feed for 24 hours compared to those that were feed immediately. In contrast Ozlu et al, (2020) mentioned that delay chicks feeding time decreased the yolk sac percent of live body weight compared to those feed early.…”

“…These results were in agreement with the finding of (Özlü et al, 2020) who found that delaying chicks feeding at placement for 12 hours significantly (P<0.01) affected the body weight. Moreover Cardeal et al, (2020) found that delaying chicks feeding for 24 hours significantly (P<0.01) decreased the body weight and feed intake compared to those fed diet after 3 hours at 21 days of age. However, in contrast Shafiei et al, (2018) reported that delayed feeding for 12 hours didn't significantly affect the body weight, weight gain and feed conversion ratio of broiler chicks.…”

The transfer of amino acids and minerals to the egg yolk and to the yolk sac of their progeny is affected by breeder age

“…In addition, the greater absorption of nutrients from the yolk sac of eggs of older breeders can be explained by the larger yolk membrane and greater development of the yolk vascular system (Moran Jr, 2007). Investigating eggs of the same weight from chickens of different ages (29 and 53 weeks), Nangsuay et al (2011) found that the yolk sac weighed the same even when fresh egg yolks differed in weight by up to 4.8 g. At four days of age, chicks consume about 85.0% of the yolk residue, demonstrating the importance of the reserve for broilers (Cardeal et al, 2020). The results of the present study can explain these findings since embryos of older breeders transfer a larger quantity of amino acids of the yolk for use in the development of the embryo and thus a smaller quantity is found in the yolk sac of the newly hatched chicks.…”

Effects of breeder age on embryonic development, hatching results, chick quality, and growing performance of the slow-growing genotype

“…Thus, the results of the present study indicate that the intestinal mucosa of embryos and chicks from old breeders (51 wk) was more mature at hatching than for young breeders (38 wk), which could contribute to better performance and better adaptation to exogenous feeding. Likewise, Cardeal et al. (2020) stated that the use of a prehousing diet is recommended for chicks breeders submitted to a long period of fasting because it stimulates growth of the small intestine until 14 d of age.…”

“…In addition, morphologic changes occur in relation to intestinal development after hatching, which are dependent on the first access to food and include the differentiation of enterocytes, definition of crypts, and increases in the absorptive surface of the intestine ( Uni et al., 2003 ). In this way, posthatching fasting reduces the proliferation of enterocytes and the size of villi, which results in impaired intestinal function and, consequently, chicken performance Cardeal et al. (2020) .…”