Bone quality characteristics and performance in broiler chickens fed diets supplemented with organic acids

Abstract

Leg weakness, lameness and other bone abnormalities connected with various metabolic disorders are continuing problems in rapidly growing meat-type chickens, leading to considerable production losses and having a negative effect on bird welfare (Julian, 2005;Waldenstedt, 2006;Dibner et al., 2007). It has been reported that the bones in modern broiler lines are characterized by poor calcification and high porosity, which may cause an increased affinity for bone damage (Williams et al., 2000). The reduced walking ability caused by bone disorders can lead to difficulties in feed intake and a decreased body weight for chickens in production. The causes of bone abnormalities in broilers are usually complex, having a substantial genetic component and a high correlation with the growth rate. However, nutrition can also have an effect on the development of bone disorders and thus its optimization may be a strategy for decreasing the severity of leg lesions in broilers. Vitamin D 3 is one of the main nutritional factors crucial to Ca and P absorption and proper skeletal development. It is generally added to diets in the form of cholecalciferol; however, in order to carry out its physiological function, it must be hydroxylated in a two-step process: in the liver (to 25-OH-D 3 ) and in the kidneys (to 1.25-OH-D 3 ). Whitehead et al. ABSTRACT: A 6-week experiment with broilers was conducted to study the effect of diet supplementation with organic acids on performance, characteristics of the tibia and femur bones, and the calcium, phosphorus and zinc balance. A total of 320, one-day-old, Ross 308 chickens were randomly assigned to 1 of 8 treatments. A 2 × 4 factorial arrangement was used, with two dietary levels of calcium and available phosphorus (standard -9.4/9.2 g Ca/kg and 4.3/4.0 g available P/kg, or reduced -8.3/8.1 g Ca/kg and 3.7/3.5 g available P/kg, for the starter/finisher feeding phases, respectively), and with diets supplemented with organic acids (none; short chain fatty acids (SCFA), 4.0 g/kg; medium chain fatty acid (MCFA), 2.0 g/kg or SCFA + MCFA, 3.0 + 2.0 g/kg). Broilers fed diets supplemented with SCFA or MCFA displayed a performance similar to those fed the unsupplemented diet (P > 0.05). At 42 days, reducing the dietary levels of Ca and P decreased such bone parameters as tibia yielding load (256 vs. 270 N) and tibia stiffness (171 vs. 184 N/mm), as well as femur breaking strength (342 vs. 369 N), yielding load (233 vs. 250 N), stiffness (164 vs. 174 N/mm), and cortex thickness (1.47 vs. 1.56 mm). The organic acids had no effect on the parameters of the tibias; however, SCFA and SCFA+MCFA increased the yielding load and stiffness of the femurs. The SCFA diet supplementation significantly increased the relative retention of Ca (45.0 vs. 41.1%). There were no significant Ca and P level × organic acids interaction effects on performance parameters, bone quality indices or the Ca, P, and Zn balance. It was thus concluded that SCFA can improve the bone quality and Ca balance in broiler chickens when fed eit...

Dietary organic acids for broiler chickens: a review

“…It is postulated that excessive amounts of dietary citric acid inclusion may compromise performance because two experiments using 60 g/kg citric acid in diets reported significant decreases in body weight gain. (Patten and Waldroup, 1988;Alçiçek et al, 2004;Leeson et al, 2005;Gunal et al, 2006;Hernández et al, 2006;García et al, 2007;Paul et al, 2007;Biggs and Parsons, 2008;Pirgozliev et al, 2008;Samanta et al, 2008;Al-Kassi and Mohssen, 2009;Ao et al, 2009;Bozkurt et al, 2009;Chowdhury et al, 2009;Kim et al, 2009;Mahdavi and Torki 2009;Panda et al, 2009a,b;Haque et al, 2010;Nourmohammadi et al, 2010;Smulikowska et al, 2010;Esmaeilipour et al, 2011;SalgadoTránsito et al, 2011;Aghazadeh and Tahayazdi, 2012;Nourmohammadi et al, 2012;Świątkiewicz and Arczewska-Wlosek, 2012). 2 Detailed information for each organic acid was provided in the Tables 5 through 9.…”

The effect of non-phytate phosphorus and phytase levels on performance, egg and tibia quality, and pH of the digestive tract in hens fed higher-calcium-content diet

“…Reducing the dietary levels of Ca and P significantly decreased the bone quality (Swiatkiewicz and Arczewska-Wlosek, 2012). The physiological roles of these two macro minerals are intricately linked (Selle et al, 2009).…”

Effects of genotype and housing system on some bone biomechanical characteristics in broiler chickens

“…Bone weight, cortical area and biomechanical tests: Right leg tibiotarsi were collected, dissected of surrounding soft tissues, weighed and wrapped with Phosphate-buffered Saline (PBS) soaked gauze then frozen at -20 ℃ until mechanical tests and cortical area analysis were conducted (47). The tibiotarsi were weighed with a Precisa XB4200C digital scale (Precisa Instruments Ltd., Switzerland).…”