Effect of Extra Arginine Supplementation on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Immune Response in Broilers
Effect of Extra Arginine Supplementation on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Immune Response in Broilers
Muhammad Khubaib Hameed, Muhammad Aziz ur Rahman, Muhammad Ashraf, Safdar Hassan, Muhammad Riaz, Muhammad Qamar Bilal, Fawwad Ahmad, Muhammad Sharif*
ABSTRACT
The trial was conducted to examine the effect of varying levels of supplementation of arginine on different parameters of growth, carcass and immune system in broilers birds. A total of 240 day old cobb-500 male chicks were purchased and were divided into 4 treatments in completely randomized design. Each treatment further subdivided into six replicates and each replicate contained 10 chicks. Four iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric starter (CP and ME as 22% and 2850 kcal/kg, respectively) and finisher (CP and ME as 20% and 2950 kcal/kg, respectively) diets (A, B, C and D) were formulated. Diet A contained arginine level according to the NRC (1994) recommendations both in starter and finisher phase. Remaining diets (B, C and D) were supplemented with arginine as 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6% of diet, respectively. The duration of experiment was 35 days. Weekly feed consumption, weekly weight gain and mortality were recorded. Data on carcass characteristics like percentage of dressed meat, thigh meat yield, breast meat yield, relative organs weight (heart, liver and gizzard) and immune organs such as bursa, spleen and thymus weight were also recorded. Weekly feed intake (3506g, 3531g) and body weight (2080g, 2139g) were better (P<0.05) in group fed arginine supplementation as 0.4 and 0.6%, respectively as compared to control group. Better feed conversion ratio (FCR, P<0.05) was shown by the all arginine treated groups with best FCR result in D group. Birds fed diet containing higher level of arginine (0.6%) had higher (P<0.05) dressing percentage, thigh yield and breast yield. However, relative organ (liver, gizzard and heart) weights and immune organ (thymus, bursa and spleen) weights were not affected (P>0.05) by arginine supplementation. Higher (P<0.05) titer against ND virus and IBD virus were recorded in birds fed diet containing arginine at 0.6%. It can be concluded that inclusion of arginine at 0.6% had improved growth performance and carcass yield.
Keywords | Arginine, Growth parameters, Carcass attributes, Immune functions
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