title: Live performance, carcass characteristic and blood metabolite responses of broilers to two distinct corn types with different extent of grinding.
abstract: The major objective of this research was to establish the main and interactive effects of corn type and extent of grinding on broiler performance including carcass characteristics. A completely randomized experimental design with a 2 (corn type) × 2 (fine and coarse) factorial arrangement, each with six replicates of 45 male Ross chicks, was applied. Experimental diets, containing dent or hard corn, were formulated with two extents of grinding (3.00 or 6.00 mm screens) for three growing phases. In comparison with dent corn, the hard corn increased body weight (BW) gain and thigh muscle yield (p < 0.05), while decreasing feed conversion ratio (p < 0.01) and abdominal fat deposition (p < 0.05), some aspects of which were age-dependent and appeared to vary with extent of grinding. Coarser grinding increased the weight of proventriculus (p < 0.01), gizzard (p < 0.05) and small + large intestine (p < 0.10) relative to BW, particularly towards market size. These results suggest that feeding hard corn or large-particle-size corn have some favourable effects on growth performance or gastrointestinal development for finishing broilers.
authors.affiliation: Shandong Key Lab for Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control, Department of Animal Science, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, China.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Shandong Key Lab for Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control, Department of Animal Science, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, China.|New Hope Liuhe Co. Ltd., Qingdao, China.
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Shandong Key Lab for Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control, Department of Animal Science, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, China.
authors.forename: Z Y
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Shandong Key Lab for Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control, Department of Animal Science, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, China.
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.affiliation: Shandong Key Lab for Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control, Department of Animal Science, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, China.
authors.forename: Z G
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Shandong Key Lab for Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control, Department of Animal Science, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition / Q000187:drug effects*; D002645:Chickens / Q000097:blood / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D003313:Zea mays / Q000145:classification*
keywords: broiler chickens; corn type; extent of grinding; gastrointestinal development; growth performance