Dietary Arginine as a Growth Promoter for Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Background: Animals require amino acid (arginine) to maintain optimal body growth and nitrogen balance. The intent of the present study was to understand the impact of arginine on broiler chick productivity. Materials and Methods: A 35-days study was conducted at the Veterinary Science Faculty's research farm in Nangarhar, Afghanistan. 60 chicks of one-day-old were purchased from a local hatchery and were divided into four equal groups: control, treatment 1 (T1), treatment 2 (T2), and treatment 3 (T3). The arginine supplementation provided to these groups was 0% (control), 0.1% (T1), 0.2% (T2), and 0.3% (T3), respectively. Findings: The treatment groups had better weight gain and feed efficiency in the third, fourth and fifth weeks compared to the control group (p<0.05). Dietary arginine supplementation also contributed to an increase in body weight gain (BWG) during the majority of the experiment's period. All arginine-supplemented groups had significantly (p<0.05) better FCR in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th weeks of age compared to the control group. Conclusion: Supplementation of arginine to the diet of broiler chickens significantly increased their live body weight, weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio. These results indicate that arginine might be used as a useful supplementation to increase their productivity.