BLOGS > HYDROLYSED LECITHIN IMPROVES BROILER PERFORMANCE
HYDROLYSED LECITHIN IMPROVES BROILER PERFORMANCE
Dietary supplementation with Elan®Digest improves production performance in broilers, due to the emulsifying properties and metabolic effects of lysolecithins (hydrolysed lecithin). Supplementation of broiler diets with 500 g Elan®Digest/t improves the dietary energy value by 50 to 65 kcal/kg. Using this energy matrix makes it possible to lower the dietary energy concentration without loss of performance. Moreover, due to its emulsifying capacity, fat digestion is become less dependent on the intestinal health status of the birds. The current experiment was done to get additional data on the effect of Elan®Digest on production performance in broilers, under ‘commercial’ conditions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
- 400 male Ross 308 broilers (starter weight 42.8 g) were distributed over 16 floor pens (25 birds/pen) placed in the middle of a commercial broiler house to mimic normal health and climate challenges, and get a more realistic estimate of the effects of Elan®Digest on production performance. Wood shavings were used as bedding material.
- A 3-phase corn/wheat/soya diet was used: Starter, 0-14 days; Grower, 15-28 days and Finisher, 29-35 days of age. In the starter and the grower diet, Salinomycin was used as anticoccidial. No anticoccidial was used in the finisher phase. 1.25% PKFAD was present in all diets. Soya oil and palm oil were added as dietary fat source, to reach a total dietary fat content of 5.1, 5.2, and 5.6% in the starter, grower and finisher diets, respectively.
- Treatments: Birds from the control group were fed the basal diets as such, whereas the treatment group received the same basal diet, but with 500 g Elan®Digest/t added on top.
- Measurements: Production performance parameters (body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and mortality) were measured per phase.
- Feed and water were ad libitum available.
RESULTS
Production performance during the 35-day production period is given in the table.
*FCRc: FCR corrected for the average body weight (0.02/100 g BW)
The effect of dietary supplementation with Elan®Digest numerically stimulated body weight gain by 27 g or 1.1% over the full 35-day period. Feed intake was not affected, and FCRc was improved by 2.0 points (P< 0,10) in broilers fed diets where low to moderate levels of added fat (max. 2.1%) were used. Comparing the efficiency of feed utilization per phase, the effect of Elan®Digest was especially clear during the finisher phase where an improvement by 4.8 points was observed. This confirms that lysolecithin has a stronger effect on energy utilization, compared to protein, resulting in improved feed efficiency when added on top of the diet.
CONCLUSIONS
Supplementation of broiler diets with 500 g Elan®Digest/t stimulated body weight gain by 1.1% and improved feed conversion ratio by 2.0 points. The diets used contained low to moderate levels of added fat. The effect of feed conversion ratio was especially clear in the final phase from 28 to 35 days of age, where a 4.8 points FCR improvement was found.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jan Dirk van der Klis – Consultant Animal Nutrition
Jan Dirk van der Klis is a renowned poultry consultant with a PhD in Animal Nutrition from Wageningen University. Throughout his career, Jan Dirk has made noteworthy contributions to the industry. With his extensive expertise, he is offering valuable nutritional guidance to enhance the health and productivity of poultry. Jan Dirk’s profound knowledge and experience are pivotal in meeting the specific nutritional requirements of poultry and devising effective feeding strategies to yield optimal results. Since 2019, Jan Dirk has been working with Olus.
