The Absence of Vitamins and Trace Minerals and Broiler Performance

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects on the performance of broilers of withdrawing supplemental vitamins (V), trace minerals (TM), or both at 4 or 5 wk of age. Four corn-soybean meal dietary treatments were used; including a control, the removal of V, the removal of TM, or removal of V and TM. The V and TM were removed during the last week or last two weeks in each experiment. The experiments were conducted for 42 days. Compared to controls, no significant differences were observed among dietary treatments for growth or feed efficiency when V or TM were removed during the last week. Removing both V and TM during the last two weeks resulted in a significant depression in weight gain. Differences were observed in feed consumption, feed efficiency, and mortality, but significant trends were not present.