GROWTH RESPONSE, CARCASS QUALITY, HAEMATOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIETS SUPPLEMENTED WITH LANTHANUM SALTS

Abstract

A study, involving the inclusion of two Lanthanum compounds (Lanthanum chloride; LaCl3 and Lanthanum (III) oxide; La2O3) in broilers diets, was conducted using a batch of 180 day-old chicks (Ross. 308). Each of the Lanthanum compounds was included in the broiler diets at 100, 200, 300 and 400mg/kg diet; giving a total of eight rare earth supplemented diets used for both the starter and the finisher phases of the experiment. The control diet was not supplemented with any of the lanthanum compounds. Prior to the 8-week feeding trial that commenced in the 2nd week of age, seven days of acclimatization was observed, during which standard commercial diet was served to the experimental birds. After 28 days trial with the starter diets, no significant (P>0.05) effect was recorded between LaCl3 and La2O3, but numerical improvements over the control were noticed in the total weight gain (TWG), total feed intake (TFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) respectively. Performance measurements at the end of the finisher phase, however, indicated significant (P<0.05) effects of the Lanthanum compounds on final weight (FW), TWG as well as TFI, whereas the best and only improvement (P>0.05) in the FCR was obtained from the feeding of 200mg La2O3/kg diet. While the relative weights of the pancreas and the abdominal fat were significantly (P<0.05) influenced, those of the breast muscle, heart, lung, kidney, liver, spleen, gizzard, bursa of fabricus and proventriculus did not exhibit significant (P>0.05) difference. On the other hand, the carcass and slaughter indices as well as the haematological variables were also not significantly (P>0.05) affected. However, among the biochemical indices studied, significant (P<0.05) differences between the two rare earth salts were observed in the plasma concentrations of the blood glucose and the aspartate aminotransferase.