Effect of inclusion zeolite as grit in commercial pelleted diet on caged broiler's growth performance, gizzard parameters and excreta size distributions

Inglés. The purpose of this experiment is to determine effects of inclusion zeolite as grit in modern caged broilers. A total of 252 day-old male broilers arrived in pens and were reared only commercial starter pellets and water until day 5. On day 5, starting point of experiment, 192 male chicks were randomly selected and assigned to 48 cages, each contain 4 chicks. Those birds in cages are equally divided in to four treatments and provided same type of diets all the time. Chicks in Control group (CG) only fed with diets without grit stone inclusion. Chicks in Zeolite group (ZG), Granite Group (GG) and Marble Group (MG) were separately provided zeolite grit, granite grit and marble grit, respectively.The zeolite grit sizes 1~2.5mm were used in my experiment. A total of 12.5g/bird of each stone are provided on top of pellets by 6 different times, day 5 (2 g/bird), 7 (3.75 g/bird), 9 (3.75 g/bird) and 18 (1 g/bird), 19 (1 g/bird) and 20 (1 g/bird). The experiment measured particle distribution (PD) of excreta samples, stone PD in excreta; measured AME, growth performance including feed intake, weight gain and FCR; gizzard pH, gizzard weight, and gizzard content by different periods.The result from end of experiment showed no significant difference birds weight gain, feed intake, feed utilization, gizzard size, gizzard pH and excreta among treatments. However, ZG had significant more weight gain at Day 11-21 and significant more in smaller size of excreta PD.In conclusion, inclusion zeolite as grit with size range of 1-2.5 mm have no negative effect on broiler growth performance and gizzard development but results in slightly higher weight gain.

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