The effect of feeding broiler with inorganic, organic, and coated trace minerals on performance, economics, and retention of copper and zinc

Summary: An experiment was conducted to evaluate efficacy of 3 forms of trace minerals on broiler performance, economics, and retention of copper and zinc. A total of 384 Ross 308 male broilers were randomly allocated to 4 dietary treatments × 8 replicates × 12 birds/pen. The treatments were as follows: T1, classical inorganic trace minerals (ITM) at levels used in the industry (mg/kg: Fe 40, Cu 15, Mn and Zn 100 each, all as sulfate; Se 0.3 as selenite and I as potassium iodide); T2, organic trace minerals (OTM, mg/kg: Cu 5, Mn 40, and Zn 30, as methionine chelates; Fe 20 as sulfate; Se 0.3 as hydroxyl selenomethionine and I 1.25 as potassium iodide); T3, all-in-one coated trace minerals (CTM with levels of trace minerals in line with those of T2) as micropellets at inclusion levels 300/250/200 g/mt, respectively, for starter, grower, and finisher phases; T4, CTM at higher doses (H-CTM 400/350/300 g/mt), for the respective 3 phases. The birds were fed on typical corn-soybean meal–based diets from day 1 to 35, in floor pens, with starter from day 1 to 12, grower from day 12 to 24, and finisher from day 24 to 35. The results showed no significant improvements in performance by feeding OTM over ITM, although numeric improvements were observed (weight gain increased by 1.39%, FCR reduced by 1.2%, and performance index increased by 1.3%, P > 0.05). The birds fed on CTM significantly improved overall performance compared with those fed on ITM (P < 0.05) and OTM (P < 0.05). Feeding OTM and CTM reduced overall feed cost per bird, in comparison with ITM. Furthermore, the birds fed on CTM and OTM tended to retain more minerals, with ranking CTM > OTM > ITM for both copper (28.1, 20.7, and 18.2%) and zinc (24.0, 13.2, and 9.7%). It can be concluded that 1) broilers can perform well on reduced levels of trace minerals in the form of OTM or CTM, comparing with general industry recommendations; 2) there are cost savings by using OTM and CTM over the classical ITM; 3) CTM shows clear advantages on broiler performance, economics, and mineral retention.