Poultry Nutrition Flashcards
Major components of poultry diet
Feed grains
- 60% of diet
- Energy
- Wheat (most popular) & sorghum
Protein meals
- 30% of diet
- Soybean (expensive because imported) and canola meal (less expensive but has anti-nutritional factors like tannins & phytase)
- Other meals: peas, lupines, meat & bone meal
Fats & oils
- 4-5%
- Energy
- Vegetable, soy, canola oil or poultry tallow
Minor components of poultry diet
Limestone (calcium)
Salt and sodium bicarbonate
Enzymes (phytase/carbohydrases) – supplement endogenous enzymes in body to break down food
Synthetic amino acids e.g. methionine (limiting amino acid)
Vitamin and mineral premix
Antibiotics – being phased out
Canola meal as alternative to expensive soybean meal
Canola meal good source of protein with a decent
amino acid profile
Plenty grown in Australia
Can be included in broiler diets although usually
limited due to concern of anti-nutritional factors;
tannins, phytate, sinapine
new varieties have lower levels of these antinutritional
factors and so with further development
we can increase usage of canola meal – reduce
dependency on SBM (expensive, imported)
3 types of poultry feed
Pelleted feeds:
- Concentrates of high quality grain
- Vitamins and minerals added
Crumbles:
- Pellets are broken, making it easier to eat
- Baby chicks
Mash:
- Crumbles finely mashed to make a meal
- Fed to layers to lower intake (layers are kept at maintenance weight)
Poultry - whole grain feeding
Done to increase gizzard weight to improve energy utilization and feed conversion ratio. Also increases gut health because eats more quickly and slowly digested in crop
Bird - gizzard function
Needed to grind up
and mechanically digest food
Bird - crop
A feed storage organ
Allows lots of feed to be eaten quickly (cropping up)
and then stored to be digested later
A small amount of feed is gradually released from the
crop into the proventriculus and gizzard
Bird - Proventriculus
True stomach
Bird - Gizzard
Muscular grinding organ
Located after the proventriculus
(true stomach)
Described as the ‘pace-maker’
of gut motility
Intent of whole grain feeding regimes (poultry)
Increased gizzard
weights and an improved digestive efficiency
Enhanced energy utilisation and feed conversion
Poultry - reverse peristalsis
Intestines push food back up
What is Australia’s first preference in meat ?
Chicken
Broiler growth
Broilers grow from 40 g day-old
chicks to 3 kg birds in 42 days
Poultry nutrition at hatching
Yolk sack provides nutrients after hatching but absorbed after 3 days
Have a very small digestive tract at birth and grows quickly – important to get them to eat and drink quickly and provide high quality digestible feed
Poultry - water intake
Important – won’t eat if no water
Needs to be cool & easily accessed (wont drink warm water)
Water intake can double under hot conditions
