The influence of copper of the total sulphur amino acids requirement of broilers during two growing periods

A study was conducted to assess the influence of copper on the total sulphur amino acid requirements of broiler chickens reared under two growing periods. The TSAA levels used were 0.73, 0.83, 0.93% with copper levels of 0, 125, 250 and 375 mg/kg for the starter period and the TSAA levels of 0.72, 0.79 and 0.86% with copper levels of 0, 125, 250 and 375 mg/kg for the grower period. Total feed consumption, body weight gain and feed L gain ratio were used as the parameters for the assessment. The results showed that adding copper at 250 mg/kg to the diets improved feed : gain ratio of the starter broilers and resulted in small improvement of body weight gain and feed : gain ratio of the grower broilers. Growth was depressed in relation to the reduction of feed intake on the chicks fed diet containing 375 mg/kg copper. There was a significant interaction between dietary TSAA and copper levels for feed intake, hence, indicating that the supplementation of copper at the level of 375 mg/kg increased the TSAA requirement of the starter broilers, although no interference with the requirement of grower broilers

The effects of dietary energy levels on the carcass composition of the broilers

A study was conducted to determine the arcass composition of broilers when fed with three varying levels of dietary energy(3,000, 3,200 and 3,400 kcal/kg ME) at 20% crude protein and 0.79% Total Sulphur Amino Acid. The results showed that there was a significant(p<0.05) increase in the ME intake of the chickens when the ME of the diet increased. Other factors like the protein intake, dressing percentage, weight gain and feed intake were not significantly affected. On the carcass, the increasing dietary ME levels resulted in a significant(p<0.05) decrease in the carcass protein percentage. Similarly, the dietary ME produced a significant(0.05) increase in the amount of and fat percentages of breast meat, thigh meat, and drumstick meat with a significant reduction in the protein percentage. There seemed to be an inverse relationship between the perentages of protein and fat. An increase in fat percentages always resulted in similar reduction in the protein content of the meat. These results also showed major differences between the white and red meat of the chicken