Effects of organic minerals, fish oil and hydrolysed collagen in broiler diets on growth performance and tibia characteristics

Nutrition is one of the most important factors for growth and bone development inbroiler chickens. Alterations in ingredients and adjustment of nutrients in broilerdiets might positively affect bone development; it might contribute to the reductionof locomotion related problems. This study was designed to evaluate effects of dietaryorganic minerals (OTM), fish oil (FISH) and hydrolysed collagen (COL) on growthperformance and tibia characteristics of broiler chickens. A total of 384 one-day-oldRoss 308 male broilers were used in a completely randomized pen design with 4 dietarytreatments and 8 replicates per treatment. In the OTM diet, the inorganic calcium,phosphorus and trace elements were replaced by their organic varieties. In the FISH diet,palm oil and soybean oil were substantially (91%) replaced by fish oil. In the COL diet,soybean meal was partly (14%) replaced by hydrolysed collagen. Results showed thatthe OTM and COL groups reached higher body weight at 42 day of age with lower feedconversion ratios. On day 28, 35 and 42, gait score (GS), tibial rotation (TR), varus valgusdeformity (VV), metatarsal breaking strength (MBS), tibia proximal length (TL), tibialateral cortex thickness (TT), femoral and metatarsal sides tibia proximal head thickness(THT), tibia mineral content (TMC), tibia mineral density (TMD), tibia breaking strength(TBS), tibia stiffness (TSF) and tibia energy to fracture (TEF) were measured (n=3/replicate). Tibia parameters were corrected for differences in BW. Chickens of theOTM treatment had longer TL at day 42; longer THT at day 28; higher TMC at day 42;higher TMD at day 28, 35 and 42; higher TBS at day 42; higher TSF at day 35 and 42;and higher TEF at day 42 compared to the other treatments. All tibia parameters of theFISH treatment showed a general tendency to lower values. All tibia parameters of theCOL and control treatments placed between OTM and FISH treatments throughout theexperiment. It can be concluded that replacing inorganic Ca, P and trace elements inbroiler diets by their organic varieties seems to stimulate growth performance and tibiadevelopment.