title: Lack of an effect of taurine supplementation on the incidence of sudden death syndrome in male broiler chicks.
abstract: Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of taurine supplementation on growth and the incidence of Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) in male broiler chickens. The 4,650 birds were day-old male broiler chickens raised in floor pens to 9 wk of age. In Experiment 1, the birds received diets containing 0, 250, 500, or 1,000 mg taurine/kg. In Experiment 2, the treatments were no added taurine, 500 mg taurine/kg feed, 1,000 mg taurine/kg feed, 250 mg taurine/L water, and 500 mg taurine/L water. Taurine supplementation did not have any significant influence on growth performance although supplementation of the feed at 250 mg/kg reduced the feed:gain ratio from 1.67 to 1.63 in Experiment 1, which was significant (P less than .05). In general, mortality was unaffected by treatment with a few exceptions: in Experiment 2, SDS deaths were reduced significantly (P less than .01) by supplementation of the feed with 500 mg taurine/kg, and at 3 and 6 wk of age, SDS deaths as a percentage of total deaths were reduced significantly with this treatment. The results are interpreted as suggesting that taurine does not play a major role in the etiology of SDS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Gardiner
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D002645:Chickens; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000737:chemistry; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013577:Syndrome; D013654:Taurine / Q000032:analysis / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D013654:Taurine