Effect of humate supplementation to feed and/or litter on performance, intestinal viscosity, litter quality, and occurrence of footpad dermatitis in broilers fed barley-based diets.

We investigated the effect of in-feed and/or in-litter supplemental humate against footpad dermatitis (FPD) in broilers fed diets based on barley. Three hundred and sixty 1-day-old Ross 308 broiler chickens were randomly distributed to 24 floor pens (4 treatments, each consisting of 6 replicate pens; 15 chickens per pen) as a completely randomized design with 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of two levels of supplemental humate in feed (0 and 1 g/kg feed) and litter (0 and 5 g/kg litter). Growth performance, intestinal viscosity, litter quality, and incidence and severity of FPD in broilers were measured. In addition, malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were determined in blood and footpad tissues of broilers with different FPD scores. The results revealed that there was no interaction between humate supplementation to feed and litter. Neither dietary nor litter supplementation of humate had a significant effect on growth performance, intestinal viscosity, litter quality, and occurrence of FPD. And also, MDA and SOD levels in serum and footpad tissue did not affect by either dietary or litter supplementation of humate. The presence of FPD (score 1) had no effect on MDA and SOD levels in serum, however, increased the MDA and SOD levels (P < 0.001, P = 0.001, respectively) in footpad tissue of broilers. The intestinal viscosity did not differ between FPD scores 0 and 1. In conclusion, findings of this experiment suggest that humate supplementation to feed and litter did not alleviate FPD development in broilers fed diets based on barley. In addition, the presence of FPD lesions increases the MDA and SOD levels in the footpad tissues.

Supplemental boric acid does not prevent the development of footpad dermatitis in broilers subjected to high stocking density.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the protective effect of dietary boric acid supplementation on the development of incidence and severity of footpad dermatitis (FPD) in broiler chickens subjected to normal or high stocking densities (NSD or HSD). A total of 576 1-day-old ROSS 308 broiler chickens were randomly allocated to 4 treatments (8 replicate pens per treatment) in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of dietary boric acid (0 and 60 mg/kg) and stocking density (NSD 14 birds/m2 and HSD 22 birds/m2). Basal diets were formulated for starter, grower, and finisher phases. Growth performance, litter quality (litter pH, moisture, temperature, and NH3 volatilization), serum and litter boron levels, and incidence and severity of FPD were recorded. The HSD affected the body weight gain and feed intake of broiler chickens during all phases and 0 to 42 (P < 0.05), whereas feed conversion ratio (FCR) was poor at 0 to 21 days only. Dietary boric acid had no effect on the growth performance of broiler chickens. Litter pH, moisture, and NH3 volatilization were higher in broiler chickens subjected to HSD (P < 0.05). Thus, the incidence and severity of FPD increased in response to HSD (P < 0.05). Dietary boric acid reduced the litter pH and NH3 volatilization on day 42 of experiment (P < 0.05). However, dietary boric acid supplementation had no effect on the incidence and severity of FPD. Boric acid supplementation in broiler diets increased the serum and litter boron levels at day 42 in broiler chickens subjected to NSD or HSD (P < 0.05). In conclusion, HSD resulted in poor growth performance, litter quality, and greater incidence and severity of FPD in broiler chickens. Dietary boric acid was ineffective against FPD in broiler chickens although it improved the litter quality by lowering the litter pH and NH3 volatilization.

The effect of glucose treatment on ruminal dry matter and crude protein degradability characteristics of soybean meal, full fat soybean and soybean seed.

A high ruminal protein degradation is especially undesirable in high producing dairy cows and beef cattle, since these animals have high requirements of protein and the amount of protein that is not degraded by ruminal microorganisms and therefore enters the small intestine (so-called UDP = undegraded protein) is crucial. In this study, Merino rams with ruminal fistulas were used (n = 4) to determine the effect of glucose treatment of soybean meal (SBM), full fat soybean (FFSB) and soybean seed (SBS) on the ruminal degradability of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP). All these feedstuffs were grinded, diluted with water and heated (2 h; 100 degrees C) either without or with supplementation of 2 or 3% glucose (20 or 30 g glucose per kg dry feed). For the determination of the ruminal degradability nylon bag technique was used (incubation times: 2-48 h). In general ruminal degradability of protein in all three soy products was reduced by glucose treatment. In FFSB CP disappearance started to decrease after 8 h of incubation, whereas in SBM (+ 3% glucose) and SBS (+ 2 or 3% glucose) reduction of CP disappearance were time-independent. Further, effective degradability (Pe) of DM and CP of all feedstuffs were significantly reduced by glucose treatment, with the reduction being more pronounced when the glucose level was increased. When adding 3% of glucose, the Pe for CP was reduced by 6 (FFSB), 16 (SBM) and 18% (SBS), respectively. Explanation for the observed effects of a glucose supplementation (incl. water and heat treatment) is the reductive activity of glucose within these conditions.