The objective of this study was to estimate the true digestibility coefficients of amino acids and digestible amino acid values of some poultry feedstuffs. The feedstuffs were: babassu meal, sunflower meal, corn gluten meal, babassu starchy meal, meat and bone meal, common beans, pearl millet and residues of cookies, pasta and bread. The precise feeding method of Sibbald was used with adult cecectomized Leghorn roosters distributed in a completely randomized design, consisting of ten treatments and six replications with a […]

The objective of this investigation was to estimate ideal bands of respiratory rate and cloacal temperature for broiler chicken strains during the rearing period and to evaluate the influence of time of exposure on bird physiological variables under different thermal stress conditions. The research was conducted in a climatic chamber during the six weeks of the rearing period, with Avian and Cobb strains exposed to two climatic conditions (comfort and stress), in three distinct times of exposure, in three conditions […]

The objective of this research was to evaluate different minimum ventilation systems, in relation to air quality and thermal comfort using geostatistics in brooding phase. The minimum ventilation systems were: Blue House I: exhaust fans + curtain management (end of the building); Blue House II: exhaust fans + side curtain management; and Dark House: exhaust fans + flag. The climate variables evaluated were: dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, carbon dioxide and ammonia concentration, during winter time, at 9 […]

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of diets with different calcium levels and supplemented with phytase on the performance of broiler chickens in initial (1 to 21 days of age), growing (22 to 35 days of age) and final (36 to 42 days of age) phases. Two thousand one hundred and sixty male broilers from AG Ross 308 line, from 1 to 42 days old were distributed in 6 treatments, with 6 replicates each. A completely randomized […]

The recent technologies that have led to the new field of functional genomics (how the genome of an organism regulates homeostasis and responds to stimuli) are providing a clearer understanding of how organisms interact with their environment and in particular their diet. We are beginning to learn how the diet may have long-term influence on performance and health. A form of epigenetic regulation has been recently described called fetal “programming”. Fueled by epidemiological data the “fetal origins” hypothesis suggests that […]

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different poultry house heating systems on the thermal comfort and performance of broiler chicks during the winter period, in the southern region of Brazil. Three buildings were used, each containing 17,700 broiler chickens (Cobb), during two complete productive cycles. Three heating systems were evaluated: furnace with indirect air heating; infrared heater and radiant experimental “drum” system with an infrared supplemental heating system. In order to evaluate the thermal environment and […]

Nutritional effects of two levels of L-glutamic acid (L-Glu) combined with four levels of vitamin K (vit. K) in serum and the liver of chicks of day-old broilers, male, Hubbard, raised in brooded batteries, receiving basic purified diet supplemented with 6.25 and 12.5% of L-Glu combined with 0.02, 0.2, 2.0 and 20.0 mg vit. K/kg. Two hundred and fifty birds were allotted to completely randomized design an in 2 × 4 factorial arrangement, with four replications of eight birds each. […]

Two experiments were carried out to evaluate the use of two methionine sources (powder or liquid) in diets based on total and digestible amino acids for white and brown growing pullets at starter phase (1 to 6 weeks old) and grower phase (11 to 16 weeks old). In each experiment, 384 birds were distributed to a completely randomized design in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement, composed of bird strain (Hy-Line W36 and Hy-Line Brown), source of methionine […]

One hundred Cobb male broiler chickens with 42 days old were used to study the effect of different digestible lysine and crude proteins ratios on chemical composition and physical composition of the breast muscle meat. A completely randomized design and two hierarquic criteries of classification was used. The birds were raised and fed a basal diet until 21 days old and, from 22 to 42 days, they were fed a diet formulated with two crude protein (CP) levels (17.0 and […]

Two experiments (Exp) were carried out to evaluate diets for broilers formulated with reducing crude protein (CP) level, supplemented with synthetic amino acids, formulated based on total amino acids (TAA) (Exp 1) or digestible AA (DAA) (Exp 2). The experiments conducted in the period from 3 to 6 weeks of age of the birds. In both experiments, the four levels of CP were: 20.8, 19.7, 18.6 and 17.5% CP. In the Experiment 2, two other treatments were added: diets containing […]