sayed abdoullah hosseini; mehdi amirsadeghi; amir hossein alizadeh-ghamsari; houshang lotfollahian; Mohammad Reza Solymani
Volume 19, Issue 4 , March 2018, , Pages 917-928
Abstract
The effects of two sources of organic zinc on performance and immune responses of broiler chickens were evaluated by using seven-hundred and fifty day-old Arian broiler chickens which randomly allocated in 30 experimental units in a completely randomized design as ...
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The effects of two sources of organic zinc on performance and immune responses of broiler chickens were evaluated by using seven-hundred and fifty day-old Arian broiler chickens which randomly allocated in 30 experimental units in a completely randomized design as a 2×3 factorial with two sources of organic zinc (zinc- methionine and zinc- glycine) and three levels of dietary zinc (40, 80 and 120 mg/kg). During the experiment, live body weight (LBW), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were measured weekly. At the end of the experiment (age 42d) two birds from each replicate were bleed and total antibody titer against Sheep Red Blood Cell (SRBC), antibody titer against Newcastle Disease virus (ND) and differential count of white blood cells (WBC) were measured. Dietary inclusion of zinc-methionine improved LBW (day 42), FI (days 0-28) and FCR (days 0-14) in comparison with zinc- glycine (P<0.05), but did not influence on productive index and livability. Antibody titer against SRBC was higher when 80 mg/kg zincwas included in diet (P<0.05). Dietary inclusion of zinc-methionine improved performance of broiler chickens in comparison with zinc- glycine (P<0.05). Enhancement of some immune responses was observed by addition of 80 mg/kg organic zinc supplement to the diets. According to the results, using zinc-methionine improved broiler performance, so it should be suggested as a zinc source.