Broiler growth response from practical low-protein diets supplemented with urea and diammonium hydrogen phosphate.

Abstract

In an experiment with 480 Hybro chickens initially 1 day old, 6 starter diets were given to appetite for the first 4 weeks: (A) 23.5% crude protein, rich in essential amino acids; (B) 20.6% crude protein, containing essential amino acids to meet requirements; (C) B + 1% urea; (D) B + 0.5% urea; (E) B + 2.2% diammonium hydrogen phosphate (DAP); (F) B + 1% DAP. The finisher diets were: (A) 20% crude protein; (B) 18% crude protein with essential amino acids to meet requirements; (C) B + 0.7% urea; (D) B + 0.35% urea; (E) B + 1.5% DAP; (F) B + 0.75% DAP. Adding 1% urea or 2.2% DAP to the starter diets decreased growth and feed conversion significantly, whereas 0.5% urea or 1.1% DAP had no significant effect on growth and feed conversion, compared with control A. Adding 0.7 or 0.35% urea to the finisher diets decreased growth and feed conversion compared with diet A. Whereas the diet containing 0.75% DAP gave better results than that containing 1.5% DAP, there was no significant effect on growth, compared with group A. At 7 weeks of age, low concentrations of urea or DAP did not produce results that differed significantly from control diet B as far as feed conversion was concerned, but they were not comparable to control diet A. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)