Dietary Chloride Levels Research Articles

The effect of different dietary potassium and chloride levels on performance and excreta dry matter in broiler chickens

The aim of this 3 × 3 factorial experiment on broilers was to investigate the effect of different dietary levels of potassium and chloride on chicken performance, carcass composition and dry matter content in excreta. 360 one-day-old Ross 308 chickens were allocated to 9 groups, in 5 replications of 8 birds (4 ♂ and 4 ♀). Chickens from 1 to 42 days of age were kept in cages with wire floors to enable excreta collection, and were administered water and feed ad libitum. The basal starter (days 1–14) and grower (days 15–42) diet contained in 1 kg, as analysed, 2.11 g and 2.10 g chloride, 8.6 g and 7.8 g potassium and 2.04 g and 1.93 g sodium, respectively. Basal diets were supplemented with potassium and chloride containing, as analysed, 11.1 g or 10.6 g and 11.8 g or 11.9 g K and 2.95 g or 2.58 g and 3.16 g or 2.70 g/kg Cl, for the starter or grower periods of feeding, respectively. The sum of cations (K + Na) in diets used in the experiment ranged from 309 mEq to 390 mEq in the starter diet and from 283 mEq to 388 mEq/kg in the grower diet; the dietary electrolyte balance (DEB) values varied from 219 mEq to 331 mEq and from 207 mEq to 329 mEq/kg, respectively. During the starter feeding period the body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion (FCR) were positively affected by increasing the chloride supplement and decrease of DEB values from 298 to 274 mEq/kg (P ≤ 0.001). In the grower period and throughout the feeding period, the positive effect of chloride supplementation on BWG and FCR was not confirmed but a negative effect of potassium was found out. The interaction between dietary levels of chloride and potassium found for BWG and FCR suggests a reciprocal relationship for both electrolytes. Dry matter in excreta was decreased when the K level in the diet was increased to 11.9 g/kg and DEB value to 319 mEq/kg (P ≤ 0.001) but breast meat yield (P ≤ 0.01) and relative mass of heart in carcass (P ≤ 0.05) were increased. Dietary chloride content elevated from 2.2 to 2.58 g/kg reduced pH in breast meat after 24 h (P ≤ 0.001), whereas elevated potassium content (7.8 vs. 10.6 g/kg) reduced drip loss in 24 (P ≤ 0.01) and 48 h stored meat (P ≤ 0.05).

Evaluation of the Chloride Requirement of the Broiler Breeder Hen

Two experiments wore conducted to evaluate the chloride requirement of the broiler breeder hen. Experiments were conducted for a twelve-week period and seven experimental diets wore fed. The diets contained the following dietary chloride levels: 0. 040, 0. 047, 0. 054, 0.060, 0.073, 0.09g, and 0. 174%. Sodiam bicarbonate was used to maintain a constant level of sodium. Levels of dietary chloride below 0.054% reduced EF; EW, & EC (ED X (EW-shell wt). Also, the highest level of dietary chloride reduced all characteristics. Dietary chloride did not have a significant effect on body weight gain or fertility and hatchability of eggs. The Nationa/ Research Council (1994) suggests that the broller breeder hen have daily chloride intake of 185 milligrams per hen per day. In Experiments 1 and 2 the requirement was 96.1 mg/hen/day and 101. 1 mg/hen/day for EP, 116.1 mg/hen/day and 148.3 mg/hen/day for maximum EW, and 95.9 mg/hen/day and 109. 5 mg/hen/day for EC, respectively.

The effects of dietary levels of chloride and bicarbonate on egg production and shell quality.

AbstractGroups of individually caged Single Comb White Leghorn layers in their seventh month of lay (Trial 1) and pullets entering their first production cycle (Trial 2) were fed a corn-soy diet with four levels of NaCl and four levels of NaHCO3 to maintain a constant level of added sodium of 0.11% and levels of added chloride varying from 0.02 and 0.18%. Analyses for total chloride in the various diets showed a range from 0.08 to 0.23. No significant differences due to treatment were observed in egg shell deformation or shell thickness. In Trial 2, hen-day egg production of the groups fed the lowest level of chloride (0.08%) was significantly lower than production at any of the higher chloride levels. It appears that 0.08% chloride was not adequate for egg production but 0.14% was adequate.