Sodium and chloride requirements of young broiler chickens fed corn-soybean diets (one to twenty-one days of age).
Sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl-) nutritional requirements, dietary electrolyte balance (DEB), and their effects on acid-base balance, litter moisture, and tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) incidence for young broiler chickens were evaluated in two trials. One-day-old Cobb broilers were distributed in a completely randomized design with six treatments, five replicates, and 50 birds per experimental unit. Treatments used in both experiments were a basal diet with 0.10% Na+ (Experiment 1) or Cl- (Experiment 2) supplemented to result in diets with Na+ or Cl- levels of 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, or 0.35%, respectively. In Experiment 1, results indicated an optimum Na+ requirement of 0.26%. Sodium levels caused a linear increase in arterial blood gas parameters, indicating an alkalogenic effect of Na+. The hypertrophic area of growth plate in the proximal tibiotarsi decreased with Na+ levels. The TD incidence decreased with increases in dietary Na+. Litter moisture increased linearly with sodium levels. In Experiment 2, the Cl- requirement was estimated as 0.25%. Chloride levels caused a quadratic effect (P < or = 0.01) on blood gas parameters, with an estimated equilibrium [blood base excess (BE) = 0] at 0.30% of dietary Cl-. No Cl- treatment effects (P > or = 0.05) were observed on litter moisture or TD incidence. The best DEB for maximum performance was 298 to 315 mEq/kg in Experiment 1 and 246 to 264 mEq/kg in Experiment 2. We concluded that the Na+ and Cl- requirements for optimum performance of young broiler chickens were 0.28 and 0.25%, respectively.
Oviedo-Rondón
E O
EO
Departamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
Murakami
A E
AE
Furlan
A C
AC
Moreira
I
I
Macari
M
M
D000136:Acid-Base Equilibrium; D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001784:Blood Gas Analysis; D002645:Chickens / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D002712:Chlorides / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D010009:Osteochondrodysplasias / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D012964:Sodium / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D013025:Glycine max; D013977:Tibia; D014882:Water-Electrolyte Balance; D003313:Zea mays
D002712:Chlorides; D012964:Sodium