Effects of Starter Diet Energy Concentration on Nutrient Digestibility and Subsequent Growth Performance and Meat Yields of Broilers under Two Coccidiosis Control Programs

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the live performance, processing characteristics, and apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of nutrients and energy (IDE) in broilers under two coccidiosis control programs (CCP) and fed three starter diet energy levels. Treatments were a factorial arrangement of CCP [in-feed diclazuril (ACD) or vaccinated after hatch (VAC)] and three starter diet energy levels [3008 (standard), 3058 (moderate), and 3108 (high) kcal/kg apparent MEn] achieved with different soybean oil concentrations. Birds were reared in floor pens (12 per pen) and received experimental starter diets from 0 to 18 d and common grower and finisher diets to 43 d. At d 11, VAC birds had higher (p p p p p p p Eimeria-induced reductions in lipid digestibility during the starter period of coccidiosis-vaccinated broilers may exacerbate, rather than ameliorate, these impacts on bird performance.

Keywords

• coccidiosis
• broiler
• nutrition
• energy
• lipid
• digestibility