title: Choline requirements of White Pekin ducks from hatch to 21 days of age.
abstract: A dose-response experiment with 8 dietary choline levels (302, 496, 778, 990, 1,182, 1,414, 1,625, and 1,832 mg/kg) was conducted with male White Pekin ducks to estimate the choline requirement from hatch to 21 d of age. Three hundred eighty-four 1-d-old male White Pekin ducks were randomly assigned to 8 dietary treatments, each containing 6 replicate pens with 8 birds per pen. At 21 d of age, weight gain, feed intake, and feed/gain from each pen were calculated for feeding period, and 2 ducks selected randomly from each pen were euthanized and the liver was collected to determine total lipids, triglycerides, and phospholipids. In our study, perosis, poor growth, and high liver fat were all observed in choline-deficient ducks and incidence of perosis was zero when dietary choline was 1,182 mg/kg. As dietary choline increased, the weight gain and feed intake increased linearly or quadratically (P < 0.05). On the other hand, as dietary choline increased, the total lipid and triglyceride in liver decreased linearly and liver phospholipid increased linearly (P < 0.05), and the lipotropic activity of choline may be associated with increasing phospholipid at a high dietary choline level. According to broken-line regression, the choline requirements for weight gain and feed intake were 810 and 823 mg/kg, respectively, but higher requirement should be considered to prevent perosis and excess liver lipid deposition completely.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China The State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Z G
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China The State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China xieming01@caas.cn.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xie
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D002794:Choline / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004372:Ducks / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009751:Nutritional Requirements
chemical_list: D002794:Choline
keywords: choline; duck; growth performance; requirement