title: Effects of non-antibiotic feed additives on performance, tibial dyschondroplasia incidence and tibia characteristics of broilers fed low-calcium diets.
abstract: This experiment was conducted to investigate and compare the efficacy of different feed additives on performance, tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) incidence and tibia characteristics of male broilers fed low-calcium diets. A completely randomized design, with six treatments and five replicates of five chicks per each was used. Experimental treatments were: (i) Basal diet containing recommended level of calcium (0.9%) as control treatment (Ctrl), (ii) low-calcium (0.67%) diet without any additive (LC), (iii) low-calcium diet + probiotic (2 g/kg diet), (iv) low-calcium diet + prebiotic (2 g/kg diet), (v) low-calcium diet + synbiotic [mix of probiotic and prebiotic (each 2 g/kg diet)], (vi) low-calcium diet + organic acid (1.5 g/kg diet). Birds were reared in an open-sided house system under natural tropical condition until 21 days of age. Feeding with low-calcium diet negatively influenced broiler performance (body weight, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio) and tibia characteristics, whereas dietary inclusion of all feed additives had beneficial effects on above-mentioned parameters and helped the birds to overcome problems related to low-calcium diets. Different treatments had no effect on TD incidence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Houshmand
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Azhar
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zulkifli
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Bejo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meimandipour
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kamyab
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D015519:Bone Density / Q000187:drug effects*; D002136:Calcium, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002645:Chickens; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D008297:Male; D010009:Osteochondrodysplasias / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D013977:Tibia / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D016474:Weight-Bearing
chemical_list: D002136:Calcium, Dietary