Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary silicate based complex mineral (SCM) on the performance of broiler chicks. Four hundred fifty one day old Cobb × Cobb broiler chicks were fed with commercial diets at 0%, 0.05%, 0.10%, 0.15% and 0.20% SCM with five replicates for five weeks. Weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion were measured weekly, and blood composition, immunity and meat quality were evaluated at the end of experiment. During overall period weight gain in chicks fed diet containing 0.1% SCM was significantly increased as compared with that of control (<italic>p</italic><0.05). Feed intake showed no consistency among the treatments. Feed conversion appeared to increase in the chickens fed with SCM addition diets during prestarter period. Albumin, glucose and other blood parameters related to chicken health tended to improve at the level of 0.05% SCM addition treatments. Drip loss in breast meat was significantly decreased in more than 0.05% SCM addition (<italic>p</italic><0.05). The expression of IL-2 (Interleukin-2) in blood increased significantly in the chickens fed with SCM of 0.05% or 0.10% level than other treatments (<italic>p</italic><0.05). The optimum SCM concentration for commercial dietary supplementation for improving broiler performance and other health-related parameters was 0.10%.
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