Effects of early feeding on yield, humoral and cellular immunity in broilers

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of early nutrition on performance, humoral and cellular immunity in broilers.
Materials & Methods: This experiment was conducted by use of 480 male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly allocated in a completely randomized balanced design with eight treatments and four replicates and 15 birds in each replicate for 42 days. The experimental treatments were included: Normal Water + Base Diet for first 72 Hours, Normal Water + Corn Powder first 48 Hours, Sugar Water 5% + Corn Powder first 48 Hours, Sugar Water 5% + Corn Powder first 72 Hours, Sugar Water 5% + Base Diet first 48 Hours, Sugar Water 5% + basic diet for the first 72 hours, gluplus + corn meal for the first 48 hours and gluplus + basal diet for the first 48 hours.
Results: The results showed that nutritional treatments had no significant effect on antibody response against sheep red blood cells on days 21 and 42 (P>0.05). The highest average weights of 6- and 7-week old obtained in gluplus + basal diets by 2699.3 and 2827.9 grams, respectively, which did not have a significant difference with normal water + basal diet (2508.5 and 2693.2 grams) (P>0.05).
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, nutritional treatment of water with 5% sugar and base diet is recommended due to higher daily gain, lower mortality and better production index in the first 48 hours of feeding broiler chicks.