Abstract
This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary calcium (Ca) or phosphorus (P) deficiency on bone development and related Ca or P metabolic utilization parameters of broilers from 22 to 42 days of age based on our previous study, which indicated that dietary Ca or P deficiency impaired the bone development by regulating related Ca or P metabolic utilization parameters of broilers from 1 to 21 days of age. A total of 504 one-day-old Arbor Acres male broilers were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatments with 7 replicates in a completely randomized design, and fed the normal control and Ca- or P-deficient diets from 1 to 21 days of age. At 22 days of age, the broilers were further fed the normal control diet (0.90% Ca+0.35% non-phytate P (NPP)), the P-deficient diet (0.90% Ca+0.18% NPP), the Ca-deficient diet (0.30% Ca+0.35% NPP) or the Ca and P-deficient diet (0.30% Ca+0.18% NPP), respectively. The results showed that dietary Ca or P deficiency decreased (P<0.05) tibia bone mineral density (BMD), bone breaking strength (BBS), ash content, tibia ash Ca content and serum P content on days 28 and 42, but increased (P<0.05) tibia alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of broilers on day 42 compared with the control group. Furthermore, the broilers fed the P-deficient diet had the lowest (P<0.05) tibia BMD, BBS, ash content, serum P content and the highest (P<0.05) serum Ca content on day 28 compared with those fed the Ca-deficient or Ca and P-deficient diets. The results from the present study indicated that the bone development and related Ca or P metabolic utilization parameters of broilers were the most sensitive to dietary P deficiency, followed by dietary Ca deficiency or Ca and P-deficiency; dietary Ca or P deficiency impaired the bone development possibly by regulating serum Ca and P contents as well as tibia Ca content and ALP activity of broilers from 22 to 42 days of age.
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