Effect of dietary exogenous pancreatin supplementation on growth performance, serum parameters, carcass characteristics and nutrient digestibility in cockerels Asare E., Zhou H.B., Cai Q.H.1, Yang H.M.*, Yang Z.2, Wang Z.Y. Department of Animal Nutrition and Feed ScienceCollege of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou UniversityWenhui East Road 78# Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province-225009, P.R.China 1Dalian Chengsan Animal Husbandry Co. Ltd., Dalian-116308, P.R. China 2Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agric-Product Safety of Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province-225009, P.R. China *Corresponding author: zhiyang@yzu.edu.cn
Online published on 1 October, 2022. Abstract A 70-d trial was conducted using a total of 480-day-old Hy-line Silver-Brown cockerels (39.58±0.24g) to investigate the effects of corn-soybean meal diet supplemented with exogenous pancreatin on the growth performance, viscera index, serum biochemical parameters, carcass characteristics, and nutrient digestibility in cockerels. A completely randomized design with 5 treatments and 6 replicates, 16 birds/pen was used. Treatment diets included a control: basal diet (BD) with 4 other treatments supplemented with pancreatin at 250, 500, 750 and 1000g/t on BD. Results showed that pancreatin supplemented linearly improved (P<0.05) the weight gain and decreased feed efficiency at the starter phase. Pancreatin supplementation negatively reduced the fecal crude protein and ether extract at 70d. An increase (P=0.042) in gizzard weight was observed on 250g/t supplement at 42d, whereas birds receiving 500g/t diets increased (P<0.05) liver, spleen, intestinal and pancreas weight at 70d. An increase (P<0.05) in breast meat and eviscerated rate was observed on 1000g/t diet. Serum total protein, albumin, alanine aminotransferase, albumin globulin ratio, urea acid, and high-density lipoprotein at 42d and urea acid, alanine, aspartate aminotransferase, high-density lipoprotein and phosphorus at 70d were all significantly affected by pancreatin supplementation. These data suggest that pancreatin supplementation to poultry diets could improve the growth, influence the development of viscera organs, carcass characteristics and serum metabolites in broiler chickens. Top Keywords Cockerels, Corn-soybean based, Growth performance, Pancreatin. Top |