title: Effects of biotin on growth performance and foot pad dermatitis of starter White Pekin ducklings.
abstract: 1. An experiment with 9 dietary supplemental biotin concentrations (0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12, 0.15, 0.18, 0.21, 1.5 mg biotin/kg) was conducted to study the effects of supplementary dietary biotin on growth performance and foot pad dermatitis (FPD) of White Pekin ducklings from hatch to 21 d of age. 2. One-d-old male Pekin ducklings (n=576) were randomly divided into 9 dietary treatments, each containing 8 replicate pens with 8 birds per pen. Final weight, feed intake and body weight gain increased with increasing dietary biotin levels from hatch to 21 d of age. No differences were observed in feed conversion ratio. 3. The supplemental biotin requirement of ducklings for optimal body weight gain was estimated to be 0.180 mg/kg. 4. At 28 d of age, dehydration, cracks, bleeding and scab, and ulceration were observed in biotin-deficient ducks. The external scores for FPD decreased from 17.50 to 1.00 with increasing dietary biotin. It was concluded that supplemental dietary biotin should not be less than 0.21 mg/kg to minimise the incidence of FPD.
authors.affiliation: a State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Institute of Animal Science, CAAS, Beijing, 100193, China.
authors.forename: Y W
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Hou
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D001710:Biotin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D001835:Body Weight; D003872:Dermatitis / Q000628:therapy / Q000662:veterinary*; D019587:Dietary Supplements / Q000032:analysis*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004372:Ducks / Q000254:growth & development*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005534:Foot Diseases / Q000628:therapy / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D015430:Weight Gain
chemical_list: D001710:Biotin