Commercial poultry feed in Serbia: Calcium and phosphorus content survey

Abstract

Calcium and phosphorus represent very important nutrients when it comes to poultry diet formulations. In this paper, we will briefly discuss the relevance and nutritional requirements of these minerals in poultry feedstuffs as well as the average amounts in poultry feed commercially sold in the Serbian market. A total of 1,058 samples of standard complete feed mixtures for broilers and laying hens were collected from the Serbian market, produced by the four major Serbian manufacturers (I-IV) of animal feed over a period of five years (2017-2021). The samples were classified into five groups: broiler starter feed (n = 198) - SF, grower feed (n = 239) - GF, and finisher feed (n = 204) - FF; layers feed 1 (n = 204) - LF1, and layers feed 2 (n = 213) - LF2. This research suggests that the mineral composition of poultry feed is highly variable among manufacturers, but also among the batches of the same manufacturers. All manufacturers for the analyte in focus had values for certain batches that were outside the limits set by the Rulebook. In general, the results of our research indicate that the average content of total phosphorus in feed for broilers and laying hens in Serbia was mostly close to the minimum-to-mid value of the defined (and declared) range of permitted concentrations by the Rulebook, while the calcium content was predominantly close to the maximum-to-middle value. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that feed manufacturers more frequently conduct an external analysis of samples of feed components and poultry feed products for the composition of these nutrients. Quality control of animal feed could be advised for poultry farms as well in order to make sure that the feed is actually within the parameters given by the manufacturers' declaration.

Keywords

• broilers
• laying hens
• feed quality
• calcium content
• phosphorus content