April 21, 2022

Interpretive Summary: Evaluation of optimal dietary calcium level by bone characteristics and calcium metabolism-related gene expression of broilers from 22 to 42 d of age

Interpretive Summary: Evaluation of optimal dietary calcium level by bone characteristics and calcium metabolism-related gene expression of broilers from 22 to 42 d of age

By: Chuanlong Wang, Lin Lu, Liyang Zhang, Xiudong Liao, Sufen Li, and Xugang Luo

The present experiment was conducted to evaluate an optimal dietary Ca level by bone characteristics and Ca metabolism-related gene expression of broilers fed a corn-soybean meal diet from 22 to 42 d of age. A total of 252 22-d-old Arbor Acres male broilers were randomly assigned to 1 of 7 treatments with 6 replicate cages of 6 birds per cage for each treatment. Broilers were fed the corn-soybean meal diets containing 0.50%, 0.60%, 0.70%, 0.80%, 0.90%, 1.00%, or 1.10% Ca for 21 d, and each diet contained 0.31% non-phytate P. The results showed that the tibia and middle toe bone mineral contents, tibia and middle toe bone mineral density, middle toe ash percentage, middle toe ash Ca percentage, and tibia alkaline phosphatase mRNA expression level were sensitive criteria to estimate the optimal dietary Ca levels of broilers. The estimates of optimal dietary Ca levels were 0.55% to 0.72% based on the above sensitive criteria. These results indicate that the optimal dietary Ca level would be 0.72% to support all of the Ca metabolism and bone development of broilers fed the corn-soybean meal diet from 22 to 42 d of age.

Read the full article on the Journal of Animal Science.