Abstract
Vertical integration in poultry industry strongly emphasizes the importance of cost control at all levels. In the usual broiler production operations, the costs involved with the production of the hatching egg or the day old chick are negligible if seen in the perspective of the cost per kg of live bird. From a research point of view, anyway, the greatest attention is usually given to the performance of broiler breeders, and most of the research in the field is focused on the improvement of their relative performance, mainly in terms of saleable chicks produced per hen, while less attention has been given to the quality of the chick and to the improvement of its growth performances, even if these last parameters have an effective impact on the overall economics of the poultry growing business. Most of the data available is quite dated, as can be seen from some recent reviews, and in general little attention is given to the impact of parental nutrition on the subsequent broiler performance. It is in fact more usual to find data about dam nutrition influence on egg fertility and hatchability than on subsequent progeny performance. The objectives of this review were to assess, on the basis of published reports, the effects of selected nutrients and anti-nutrients normally prevailing in commercial broiler breeder feeds - vitamins, micro-minerals, mycotoxins, - trying to pinpoint which could be the positive and the negative effects of both on the subsequent broiler performance, with a particular attention to the impact on immune function and carcass yield.
Highlights
From a research point of view, anyway, the greatest attention is usually given to the performance of broiler breeders, and most of the research in the field is focused on the improvement of their relative performance, mainly in terms of saleable chicks produced per hen, while less attention has been given to the quality of the chick and to the improvement of its growth performances, even if these last parameters have an effective impact on the overall economics of the poultry growing business
It is more usual to find data about dam nutrition influence on egg fertility and hatchability than on subsequent progeny performance
The nutrition of breeding hens has been subjected to a steady improvement in the years, and the more it came clear how to feed them in order to obtain the best production and fertility, the smaller became the field of possible improvement
Summary
The nutrition of breeding hens has been subjected to a steady improvement in the years, and the more it came clear how to feed them in order to obtain the best production and fertility, the smaller became the field of possible improvement. The possibility of improving broilers production parameter by means of manipulation of the parent stock diets has been the subject of research for many years, with the aim to find ways to influence the growth of their offspring in a most economical way. This is due to the fact that the relative incidence of layer feed costs on the total feed cost of production of one live bird is very small, as it can be seen from the calculations shown in Table 1 and 2, and Equations 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
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