Utilization of infertile egg powder in ration improves the digestive tract development of broiler chickens

Abstract

Infertile egg powder (IEP) is a potential feedstuff with high nutrient content. This experiment investigated the effect of IEP utilization in the ration on digestive tract development of broiler chickens. In total, 196 one-day-old male broilers were distributed into four dietary treatments with 7 replicates of 7 birds each. The treatments comprised a basal diet (T0), 96% basal diet + 4% IEP (T1), 94% basal diet + 6% IEP (T2), and 92% basal diet + 8% IEP (T3). The weight and length of the digestive tract were measured at the end of feeding trial to observe their development. Analysis of variance was applied to analyze the effect of treatments, while Duncan’s Multiple Range Test was applied to compare the mean of each treatment. The results indicated that feeding with IEP (T1, T2, and T3 groups) generated the longer duodenum, jejunum, ileum and whole small intestine compared with feeding without IEP (T0, P<0.05), with the highest magnitude was observed for T3. Accordingly, IEP improved the weight of small intestine (P<0.05). In line with this, the IEP groups had heavier gizzard and liver than non-IEP groups. It can be concluded that IEP improves the development of digestive tract of broiler chickens.