Eriksson, Maria
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Organic feed legislation, long-rearing periods and high requirements of sulphur-rich amino acids (AAs) complicate the composition of a well-balanced organic diet for broilers. To evaluate the effect of protein and AA composition, three different diets were fed to 180 Ross broilers, divided over 45 pens. The diets comprised a low crude protein (CP) and AA diet, a high CP diet aiming at AA levels used in conventional production and a low protein diet supplemented with lysine, methionine and threonine up to levels of the high protein diet. Chickens were immunologically challenged with an inactivated infectious bursal disease (IBD) vaccine; antibody titres, heterophil/lymphocyte (H/L) ratios, lymphoid organ weights and digestibility coefficients were recorded. In general, bird performance improved with increasing dietary CP and AA levels. Dietary treatments did not significantly affect any of the measured immune or stress-related parameters.
Keywords
Amino acid; H/L ratio; immune response; lymphoid organ; organic production; stress; uric acid
Published in
Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section A - Animal Science
2009, volume: 59, number: 4, pages: 211-219
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS
SLU Authors
Elwinger, Klas
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
UKÄ Subject classification
Agricultural Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09064700903358256
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/48813