Abstract
BackgroundDue to the important functions of arginine in poultry, it should be questioned whether the currently adopted dietary Arg:Lys ratios are sufficient to meet the modern broiler requirement in arginine. The present study aimed, therefore, to evaluate the effects of the dietary supplementation of L-arginine in a commercial broiler diet on productive performance, breast meat quality attributes, incidence and severity of breast muscle myopathies and foot pad dermatitis (FPD), and plasma and muscle metabolomics profile in fast-growing broilers.ResultsA total of 1,170 1-day-old Ross 308 male chicks was divided into two experimental groups of 9 replicates each fed either a commercial basal diet (CON, digestible Arg:Lys ratio of 1.05, 1.05, 1.06 and 1.07 in each feeding phase, respectively) or the same basal diet supplemented on-top with crystalline L-arginine (ARG, digestible Arg:Lys ratio of 1.15, 1.15, 1.16 and 1.17, respectively). Productive parameters were determined at the end of each feeding phase (12, 22, 33, 43 d). At slaughter (43 d), incidence and severity of FPD and breast myopathies were assessed, while plasma and breast muscle samples were collected and analyzed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance-spectroscopy. The dietary supplementation of arginine significantly reduced cumulative feed conversion ratio compared to the control diet at 12 d (1.352 vs. 1.401, P < 0.05), 22 d (1.398 vs. 1.420; P < 0.01) and 33 d (1.494 vs. 1.524; P < 0.05), and also tended to improve it in the overall period of trial (1.646 vs. 1.675; P = 0.09). Body weight was significantly increased in ARG compared to CON group at 33 d (1,884 vs. 1,829 g; P < 0.05). No significant effect was observed on meat quality attributes, breast myopathies and FPD occurrence. ARG birds showed significantly higher plasma concentration of arginine and leucine, and lower of acetoacetate, glutamate, adenosine and proline. Arginine and acetate concentrations were higher, whereas acetone and inosine levels were lower in the breast of ARG birds (P < 0.05).ConclusionsTaken together, these data showed that increased digestible Arg:Lys ratio had positive effects on feed efficiency in broiler chickens probably via modulation of metabolites that play key roles in energy and protein metabolism.
Highlights
Due to the important functions of arginine in poultry, it should be questioned whether the currently adopted dietary Arg:Lys ratios are sufficient to meet the modern broiler requirement in arginine
After 12 d, ARG group showed a lower feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared to CON group (1.352 vs. 1.401, P < 0.05) whereas Body weight (BW), daily weight gain (DWG), and daily feed intake (DFI) remained unaffected between both groups
Considering other published studies aimed at evaluating the effects of the dietary supplementation of arginine in broilers, huge differences regarding bird’s genotype, age, and sex, composition of the basal diet, number and length of feeding phases, and inclusion rate of arginine, were observed and care should be used in comparing results from different studies [41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54]
Summary
Due to the important functions of arginine in poultry, it should be questioned whether the currently adopted dietary Arg:Lys ratios are sufficient to meet the modern broiler requirement in arginine. Current modern broilers have been selected for decades for an increased feed efficiency and enhanced breast meat yield [2]. This selection process has exerted marked changes in their body composition and, in their nutritional requirements, with special regards to those of amino acids and proteins. Current commercial broiler diets contain higher lysine levels than those recommended by the National Research Council (NRC) [3] to support the extraordinary breast muscle development of modern genetic lines. Current recommendations [5, 6] regarding the optimal amino acid levels in broiler diets indicate higher lysine concentrations than those reported by the NRC [3]. As suggested by Kidd et al [7], increasing the dietary concentration of lysine without considering other important amino acids such as threonine or arginine may lead to a marginal deficiency of those
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