Al-Sagan Ahmed A, Al-Yemni Abdullah H, Abudabos Alaeldein M, Al-Abdullatif Abdulaziz A, Hussein Elsayed O
King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology, P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia.
Arabian Agriculture Services Company (ARASCO), Riyadh 11593, Saudi Arabia.
Animals (Basel). 2021 May 26;11(6):1555. doi: 10.3390/ani11061555.
Improving broilers' production in the hot region is essential to overcome heat-stress challenges. The current experiment examined the effects of betaine's fortification (0.0, 0.075, 0.10, and 0.15%) to broiler chickens during days 1-40 of age. The growth period was divided into the starter (1-18 d) and growing-finishing (19-40 d). During the starter period, there was no heat challenge, and all birds were kept under the same conditions. At 18 days of age, half of the birds were kept under thermos-neutral temperature (TN, 22-24 °C), while the other half were kept under high temperature (HT, 35 °C). However, the production efficiency factor (PEF) was the best ( < 0.05) for birds that received 0.10% betaine. Betaine fortification improved ( < 0.05 and 0.01) body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and production efficiency factor (PEF) in the cumulative finisher heat-stress challenge period (19-40 d). The best performance was achieved at 0.1% betaine fortification with 84 g gain, 4.6 points improvement in FCR, and 24 points improvements in PEF as compared to no betaine fortification. The heat-stressed group consumed less feed (239 g), gained less weight (179 g), converted feed less efficiently (2.6 points), and, as a result, had lower FEF (29 points) as compared to the TN group. Conclusively, heat challenge had a powerful effect on growth performance, meat characteristics, and blood parameters, especially during the grower-finisher period. Betaine fortification (0.1%) during heat stress reduced the negative impact on performance and improved production efficiency, suggesting that betaine is a useful nutritional tool under stress conditions that deserves further investigation.
提高炎热地区肉鸡的生产性能对于应对热应激挑战至关重要。当前实验研究了在1至40日龄期间，在肉鸡日粮中添加不同水平（0.0%、0.075%、0.10%和0.15%）的甜菜碱的效果。生长周期分为育雏期（1至18日龄）和生长育肥期（19至40日龄）。在育雏期，不存在热应激挑战，所有鸡只饲养条件相同。18日龄时，一半鸡只饲养在热中性温度（TN，22 - 24°C）环境下，另一半饲养在高温（HT，35°C）环境下。然而，对于日粮中添加0.10%甜菜碱的鸡只，其生产效率因子（PEF）最佳（P < 0.05）。在累积的生长育肥期热应激挑战阶段（19至40日龄），添加甜菜碱改善了（P < 0.05和P < 0.01）体重增加（BWG）、饲料转化率（FCR）和生产效率因子（PEF）。与不添加甜菜碱相比，日粮中添加0.1%甜菜碱时性能最佳，体重增加84克，FCR改善4.6个百分点，PEF改善24个百分点。与TN组相比，热应激组采食量减少（239克），体重增加较少（179克），饲料转化率较低（低2.6个百分点），因此FEF较低（低29个百分点）。总之，热应激对生长性能、肉品质和血液参数有显著影响，尤其是在生长育肥期。热应激期间添加甜菜碱（0.1%）可减少对性能的负面影响并提高生产效率，这表明甜菜碱是应激条件下一种有用的营养手段，值得进一步研究。
