Dietary Calcium Levels Reduce the Efficacy of One Alpha-Hydroxycholecalciferol in Phosphorus-Deficient Diets of Broilers

Abstract

One alpha-hydroxycholecalciferol (1α-OH D 3 ), an analog of cholecalciferol (vitamin D 3 ), improves growth performance and phosphorus retention in broilers. In the present study, we investigate the effects of dietary calcium (Ca) levels on the efficacy of 1α-OH D 3 in the phosphorus (P)-deficient corn-soybean meal diets of 1-to 21-d-old broilers. Four hundred female Ross 308 broilers, 1-d-old, were randomly allotted to 10 treatments with 4 cages of 10 birds each. A 5×2 factorial experiment was designed to test 0.40, 0.60, 0.80, 1.00, and 1.20% Ca combined with 0 and 5 μg/kg of 1α-OH D 3 in a basal diet (0.25% non-phytate phosphorus (NPP), 0.48% total phosphorus (tP)) without vitamin D 3 . The lowest levels of body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), feed efficiency (FE), tibia quality (except of ash and P), as well as the highest value of mortality, were observed at 0.40% Ca. Additional Ca corrected the Ca deficiency and eventually 1.2% Ca caused a P deficiency. The addition of 1α-OH D 3 improved BWG, FI, FE, serum inorganic phosphate concentration, tP retention, tibia weight, length, breaking-strength, and content of ash, Ca, and P, and decreased mortality. However, 1α-OH D 3 efficacy responded negatively to dietary Ca level. These results indicate that 1α-OH D 3 exerts the highest activities at lower concentration of dietary Ca.

Effects of Non-phytate Phosphorus and 1a-Hydroxycholecalciferol on Growth Performance, Bone Mineralization, and Carcass Traits of Broiler Chickens

“…Vitamin D deficiency reduced BWG, FI, and FE, and caused severe mortality of broilers in groups 1 to 6. The addition of1α-OH-D 3 improved the growth performance of broilers in the present study, which is in agreement with the findings of Biehl & Baker (1997), Edwards (2002), Snow et al (2004), and Han et al (2009cHan et al ( , 2012.…”

“…The compound 1α-OH-D 3 had positive effects on growth and bone mineralization in broiler chickens (Biehl and Baker, 1997). However, the efficacy of 1α-OH-D 3 negatively responded to dietary Ca levels (Han et al, 2012). These data indicate that dietary Ca affects vitamin D bioavailability.…”

“…The1α-OH-D 3 solution was prepared using the method of Han et al (2012). Briefly, 1α-OH-D 3 was dissolved in ethanol and then diluted to a final concentration of 10 mg/L of 1α-OH-D 3 in a solution of 5% ethanol and 95% propylene glycol.…”

Effects of calcium to non-phytate phosphorus ratio and different sources of vitamin D on growth performance and bone mineralization in broiler chickens

“…1α-OH-D 3 exerts the highest activities at lower concentrations of dietary Ca (Han et al, 2012). In the present study, 42-d-old broilers fed 1α-OH-D 3 or 25-OH-D 3 as the vitamin D source obtained the highest BWG and FI when the Ca to NPP ratio was from 2.27 to 2.33.…”

The effects of dietary cholecalciferol and 1α-hydroxycholecalciferol levels in a calcium- and phosphorus-deficient diet on growth performance and tibia quality of growing broilers

“…In other studies, similar basal diets with sufficient Ca and P were used to compare the efficacy of vitamin D 3 with that of 1α-OH D 3 and that of vitamin D 3 with that of 25-OH D 3 (Yarger et al, 1995;Fritts and Waldroup, 2003). Vitamin D 3 (Qian et al, 1997) and 1α-OH D 3 (Han et al, 2012) have high activity at low levels of dietary Ca and P. Thus, comparing the efficacy of vitamin D metabolites should be conducted under Ca-and P-deficient diets. In the present study, the effect of vitamin D 3 and 1α-OH D 3 on growth performance and tibia quality was reevaluated on the basis of diets with 0.50% Ca and 0.25% NPP.…”