The Impact of Dietary Electrolyte Balance on Male Broiler Performance Offered Reduced Crude Protein Diets

Abstract

Broiler chickens aged from 14 to 35 days post-hatch were offered iso-energetic diets formulated to crude protein levels of 200, 188, 172 and 156 g/kg. These diets were formulated to a constant dietary electrolyte balance of 230 mEq/kg. An additional fifth diet was formulated to contain 156 g/kg crude protein and a dietary electrolyte balance of 120 mEq/kg. FCR linearly increased from 1.495 to 1.625 as dietary CP declined. In addition, relative fat-pad weights also increased in a linear fashion from 7.26 to 12.30 g/kg of body weight and water to feed intake ratios declined from 2.15 to 1.85. At the lowest crude protein level of 156 g/kg, there were no differences in any of the performance parameters measured when dietary electrolyte balance was reduced and these findings are discussed.