Effects of ascites syndrome in broilers on their growth performances and the availability of energy and nutrients

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of ascites syndrome (AS) on the growth performance and availability of dietary energy and nutrients in broilers. One hundred and twenty one-day-old avian broilers were randomly allotted into two groups (control group and test group) with six replications of ten birds. In the test group, the addition of 3, 3, 5-triiodothyronine (T₃, 1.5 mg/kg diet) and low ambient temperature (LAT) were used to induce AS. Results showed that T₃ and LAT could successfully induce AS in broilers with an incidence rate of 66.7% and a mortality rate of 23.3%. Compared with the control, the bird growth performance of the test group was decreased (P<0.05) and heart index was increased (P<0.05). For the test group, the availability of dietary energy (P<0.01), crude fat (P<0.01), crude protein (P<0.05), and most amino acids in the second week were lower compared with the control group. Results showed that the low availability of energy and nutrients and the poor growth resulted from the high AS incidence rate.