Effect of vitamins on the incidence of mortality and acute death syndrome ("flip-over") in broiler chickens.
Eight different vitamin mixtures were each fed to 6 replicate pens (150 birds/pen) of day-old Cobb chicks in a completely randomized design to evaluate the effect of biotin, pyridoxine, and thiamine singly or in combination and the effect of feeding these vitamins in addition to the standard vitamins at two and four times their required level on mortality and incidence of acute death syndrome (ADS) or "flip-over" of broiler chickens. Further additions of the standard vitamins and the addition of thiamine to the standard vitamin mixture significantly (P less than .05) increased 28-day live weights. The addition of biotin or thiamine significantly (P less than .05) improved feed conversion. Monetary returns were reduced for those diets involving multiple additions of vitamins due to increased feed costs. Total mortality and mortality attributed to ADS appeared to be reduced by the inclusion of additional vitamins. The inclusion of biotin alone significantly reduced total mortality (P less than .005) and mortality due to ADS (P less than .05).
D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality; D014815:Vitamins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*
D014815:Vitamins