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Effect of fermented organic rare earth (ORE) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood profiles, meat quality, relative organ weight, excreta microflora, and noxious gas emission in broiler chickens
This study was to evaluate the effect of fermented organic rare earth (ORE) in broiler chickens. A total of 765 ROSS 308 1-d-old broilers, BW of 48.97 ± 0.11 g, were used in this 4-week feeding trial, 1-14 days for starter and 15-28 days for finisher. Dietary treatments included 1) NC (Basal diet, free antibiotics diet), 2) ORE1 (NC + fermented ORE 0.05%), 3) ORE2 (NC + fermented ORE 0.10%), 4) ORE3 (NC + fermented ORE 0.15%), and 5) PC (Antibiotics diet, NC + tiamulin 0.1%). All birds were allotted into one of five treatments with nine replications (17 birds per replication) in a completely randomized design. At the starter stage, feed intake (FI) was increased (1.250 vs. 1.284; P < 0.05) in ORE2 compared with NC. At the finisher stage, BW gain (BWG) tended to increase (NC, ORE1, ORE2, ORE3: 953, 973, 976, 992 g; linear, P = 0.061) as the level of fermented ORE increased in the diets. The FCR in PC was improved (1.699 vs. 1.764, p<0.05) compared with the NC. At the end of the trial, DM (78.31 vs. 75.52 %; P < 0.05; linear, P = 0.050) and GE (79.96 vs. 76.61 %; P < 0.05; linear, P = 0.010) in treatment ORE3 increased compared with NC, and they also increased as the level of fermented ORE increased in the diets. The DM digestibility in PC was higher (78.49 vs. 75.52%; p<0.05) than that in NC. The pH value of breast muscle in ORE2 increased (5.58 vs. 5.41; P < 0.05) compared with PC. Yellowness (NC, ORE1, ORE2, ORE3: 15.51, 15.34, 16.14, 17.17; linear, P = 0.003) increased with the increasing amount of fermented ORE in the diets. And the lower value of drip loss was observed in broiler chickens fed the diet with 0.15% fermented ORE (3.14 vs. 4.32 %; P < 0.05) than PC treatment. There was a tendency to increase the weight of liver (NC, ORE1, ORE2, ORE3: 2.95, 2.86, 3.23, 3.23; P < 0.01) as the amount of fermented ORE increased in the diet. However, there was no influence on the relative organ weight, excreta microflora, and noxious gas emission. In conclusion, the results from this study demonstrate that feeding 0.10% or 0.15% fermented ORE improved growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and meat quality in broiler chickens.
Keywords: broiler chicken, excreta microflora, fermented organic rare earth, growth performance, meat quality, nutrient digestibility