Influence of feeding diets supplemented with different levels and sources of zinc, copper and manganese on the mineral concentrations in tibia and performance of broiler chickens

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of organic chelates of zinc, manganese and copper compare to their inorganic sources on performance and concentration of these minerals in the tibia of broiler chicks. Three hundred and twelve day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly distributed into 6 treatments with four replicates of 13 birds each based on a completely randomized design. Treatments and mineral levels included: A: control (commercial diet) containing 100, 100 and 10 mg kg-1 Zn, Mn and Cu from inorganic sources; B: containing 140, 140 and 17 mg kg-1 Zn, Mn and Cu from inorganic and organic sources; C: containing 40, 60 and 8 mg kg-1 Zn, Mn and Cu from inorganic sources; D: 40, 40 and 7 mg kg-1 Zn, Mn and Cu from organic sources; E: 40, 40 and 7 mg kg-1 Zn, Mn and Cu from inorganic (sulfate) sources; F: 60, 60 and 10.5 mg kg-1 Zn, Mn and Cu from organic source, respectively. Feed intake of chicks fed B diet from 0 to 21 days of age was significantly (p<0.05) higher than birds receiving control diet, but from 21 to 42 days of age the E treatment significantly (p<0.05) consumed more feed compared to control group. Feed conversion ratio of control group improved significantly (p<0.05) in comparison with C treatment. According to obtained results, corn-soybean diets supplemented with 40-40-7 mg kg-1 Zn-Mn-Cu from their sulfate or organic sources instead of application of 100-100-10 mg kg-1 Zn-Mn-Cu from their oxide sources can support performance of broiler chickens properly. © 2011 Academic Journals Inc.