Hen Mineral Nutrition Impacts Progeny Livability

Abstract

A concern of nutritionists and live production personnel is to improve early flock livability and growth rate of broilers. Improvements in progeny performance through trace metal supplementation in the hen’s diet may be a method to accomplish this. The focus of this experiment was to evaluate live performance and carcass parameters of progeny from broiler breeders fed diets containing different levels and forms of Zn and Mn. Cobb 500 breeders received a control diet or diets containing supplemental Zn and Mn from inorganic sources, amino acid complexes, or a combination of the two. Body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, livability, percentage carcass without giblets, percentage abdominal fat, and percentage breast meat were measured on the progeny of 37-wk-old breeders. Feeding broiler breeders supplemental Zn and Mn from amino acid complexes improved livability of progeny without affecting growth or carcass characteristics. In conclusion, future research should address progeny carryover of Zn and Mn to improve livability during stress or disease conditions.