Purified glycerin in balanced diets for chicken broilers from 8 to 21 days old

Mônica Calixto Da Silva,Carla Fonseca Alves Campos,Luciano Fernanades Sousa,Mayara Da Cruz Ribeiro,Roberta Gomes Marçal Vieira Vaz,José Henrique Stringhini,Iberê Pereira Parente,Kênia Ferreira Rodrigues,Flávia Luzia Rodrigues Fonseca,Jefferson Rodrigues Da Silva,Latóya De Sousa Bezerra

doi:10.14393/bj-v35n5a2019-39540

Abstract

This paper aimed to evaluate the metabolizability, performance and economic viability of purified glycerin inclusion in balanced diets fed to chicken broilers from 8 to 21 days old. Two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, 100 broilers (14 days old) were distributed in a completely randomized design into two treatments, with five replications of 10 broilers. Treatments consisted of a control diet and a test diet, in which purified glycerin replaced 10% of the control diet. In the second experiment, 200 broilers (8 days old) were distributed in a completely randomized design into four treatments (0, 2, 4 and 6% of purified glycerin inclusion), with five replications of 10 broilers. The weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion, final weight, apparent metabolizable energy (AME), nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn), metabolizability coefficients of dry matter (DMMC), crude protein (CPMC) and gross energy (GEMC), and the cost of feed per kg of broiler produced were evaluated. The AME, AMEn, DMMC, CPMC and GEMC from the purified glycerin were 3790 and 3560 kcal/kg, and 83.72, 71.52 and 86.27%, respectively. The glycerin levels did not affect (p>0.05) any of the performance characteristics (weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion and final weight). The lowest feeding cost and the highest gross margin were obtained for broilers fed with 6% purified glycerin. The inclusion of 6% purified glycerin in balanced diets for broilers from 8 to 21 days old was technically and economically feasible.

Highlights

The high feeding costs for chicken broilers, mainly due to the increased demand for corn, have motivated the interest of nutritionists to search for alternative sources of energy that can partially replace energetic feed in the diet
This paper aimed to evaluate the metabolizability, performance and economic viability of purified glycerin inclusion in balanced diets for chicken broilers from 8 to 21 days old
Maximum and minimum temperatures inside the facility during the experimental period were 25.6, 32.8 and 20.8°C, respectively, and the relative humidity was 85%. These data showed that broilers were within the thermal neutral zone throughout the trial period because daily values of air temperature were within the recommended range for the different life stages, both for the phase from 8−14 and 14−21 days old (CORDEIRO et al, 2010; OLIVEIRA et al, 2006)

Summary

Introduction

The high feeding costs for chicken broilers, mainly due to the increased demand for corn, have motivated the interest of nutritionists to search for alternative sources of energy that can partially replace energetic feed in the diet. Studies that evaluated the energy content of glycerin, evidenced its efficiency as an energy source for poultry feeding because it has a high metabolizable energy content. In literature, different metabolizable energy contents are reported because factors, such as glycerin inclusion levels in the diet, age of the broilers, lack of standardization in the production process, in addition to different sources (plant or animal) can cause variation and interfere in feed composition (DOZIER et al, 2008; 2011; HENZ et al, 2014a; LIMA et al, 2013). The results of previous studies conducted with the use of glycerin in broiler diets demonstrated its potential as an effective energy source for poultry nutrition at various production stages (CERRATE et al, 2006; GUERRA et al, 2011; ROMANO et al, 2014).

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Results