Growth Performance and Some Serum, Bone and Fecal Parameters of Broilers Fed With Different Levels of Calcium and Phosphorus

Abstract

Aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of diet non-phytate phosphorus (P) and calcium (Ca) level on growth performance and some blood, bone and faeces parameters of broilers. A total of 480 one-day-old Ross 308 broilers were randomly allocated to 3 dietary treatments with 5 replicates for a 42-d study. Corn-soybean meal based diets were consisted of three different Ca and P concentrations for starter and grower periods. High, medium and low Ca and P levels in starter and grower periods were 1.05-0.49, 0.95-0.44, 0.85-0.41% and 0.87-0.42, 0.78-0.38, 0.69-0.34%, respectively. After the first 21-d feeding period, no differences were observed for feed intake (FI) but body weight (BW) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were higher (P<0.05) in group fed 0.85-0.41% Ca and P. Diet with low Ca and P tended to increase final body weight of the chicks at 42 days old. No differences were observed for FI, FCR and mortality among the treatments. Different Ca and P levels had no effect on internal organ weights (P>0.05). Fecal ash, tibia and sternum weight and sternum ash were not affected from the Ca and P concentrations but tibia ash was lower (P<0.05) in group having low concentration of Ca and P. Decreasing levels of Ca and P had a negative effect on relative breast meat weight (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in Ca, P concentrations and aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) activities in blood serum (P>0.05). However, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) enzyme activity was higher (P<0.05) in group having medium levels of Ca and P. Based on the data, it can be concluded that 8.5 g/kg Ca and 4.1 g/kg P can be used for starter period without any deterioration on growth performance.