Department of Animal Science, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari-396450, India
1Department of Statistics, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari-396450, India
An experiment was conducted to ascertain the effect of graded level of boron supplementation on the performance and mineral metabolism in broiler chicken. A total of 240 day-old broiler chicks (Vencob) of mixed sex (avg. BW 47.50±0.26 g) were distributed in a completely randomized design into five treatments each with four replicates of 12 birds (6 of each sex). The dietary treatments involved supplementation of boron (as boric acid) at 0 (B-0), 25 (B-25), 50 (B-50), 75 (B-75) and 100 (B-100) mg/kg diet. The performance indices like BW, weekly BW gain (BWG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were recorded till 42 d of age. A metabolism trial was conducted at the end to determine the balance of select minerals. The performances of broilers in term of BW, FCR and FI were significantly higher (P<0.05) in B-25 followed by B-50, B-0, B-75 and B-100. Conversely, the FCR and BW were significantly affected (P<0.05) in B-100 among the treatment groups. The retention percentage of calcium and phosphorus were significantly higher (P<0.05) in B-25 and B-50 as compared to B-0 and that of manganese and iron were significantly higher (P<0.05) in B-0 among the dietary treatment groups. A decreased trend in retention of manganese and iron were observed with increased level of boron supplementation from 25 to 100 mg/kg diet. Based on the above results, it is concluded that supplementation of boron at 25 mg/kg in diet improved the performance indices of the broiler chicken.
Boron, Broiler chicken, Growth performance, Mineral balance, Serum minerals
