Issues in Broiler Starter Feed and Formulation of an Effective Diet Plan

Running head: APPLIED POULTRY SCIENCE
Advanced Poultry Nutrition coursework
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1APPLIED POULTRY SCIENCE
Answer A
Poultry feed refers to the food for farm poultry that most commonly includes ducks, chicken,
geese, fowl, pigeon, turkey and other domestic birds. Although most poultry used to forage for their feed
by eating insects and the grains that were spilled around by horses and cattle, their diet lacked adequate
nutrients. Thus, the concept of broiler feed is widely relevant that encompasses supplementation of feed
with grains and essential nutrients. Unlike feeds that are prepared for ruminants, broiler feeds are
generally complete and are enriched with essential nutrients that help in meeting the daily requirements of
the birds, apart from water intake. Typical composition of an accurate broiler starter feed includes wheat,
sorghum, maize, pollard and bran (Ravindran 2013). It also contains protein rich meals such as, canola,
soybean, and sunflower, in addition to limestone, vegetable oil, sodium bicarbonate, choline chloride,
amino acids, antibiotics, vitamins and minerals. Such poultry feeds are usually given in the form of pellets,
mash or crumbles.
Broiler poultry birds are usually raised for meat and egg production on a commercial scale. These
birds have a good ratio of converting feed to meat, thereby transforming it in a small span of time.
Therefore, it is essential to maintain a good quality feeding for a profitable farming business. Research
evidences state that broilers require huge amount of protein in their food that will provide them adequate
energy (Petracci et al. 2015). However, the quantity and nutritional requirements of the feed depend on
the age and weigh of poultry, rate of growth, egg production and nutrient amount obtained from foraging
(Willems, Miller and Wood 2013). This assignment will evaluate the provided broiler feed chart and will
identify issues in the present diet.
Issues in the diet
The 5 issues identified in the broiler starter diet are as follows:
 Normal levels of calcium in broiler starter feed are of the range 1.0-1.50%. However, an analysis
of the provided diet chart indicates that the feed is supplemented with high amount of calcium.
This might create several problems in the birds. Usually, beneficial effects of a feed
supplemented with calcium are attained only when it contains the recommended doses (Han et
al. 2012). Excess concentration of dietary calcium in the feed will result in the development of
metabolic disorders, such as, urolithiasis, diuresis, poor pullet performance, and visceral gout.
Poor pullet performance might contribute to production of small eggs, sharp reduction in egg
production and sudden infertility. Excess use of limestone will result in kidney lesions. Thus, there
is a need to administer appropriate dose of calcium in the diet (Proszkowiec-Weglarz and Angel
2013).
 A broiler starter should fed with 20-23% crude protein and should be given a feed that provides
approximately 3,000 kcal ME/kg energy from birth till 6 weeks of age (Abbasi et al. 2014).

2APPLIED POULTRY SCIENCE
Growth of the broiler and efficiency of the feed use will improve upon use of mini-pellets or
crumbs in the form of starter feed. Broiler chickens have been found to traditionally feed on diets
that are relatively high in their energy content. This can be attributed to the fact that greater
amount of energy not only promotes efficient utilization of the feed but also plays an important
role in maximizing rate of growth among the broilers (Collett 2012). In the case scenario, an
evaluation of the starter feed chart indicates that the broilers are being administered a feed that is
unable to provide them adequate amount of energy. Therefore, it is essential to design the starter
feed in a way that will be rich in its energy content. Low amount of energy in the starter diet will
often make it difficult to gain appropriate energy and maintain the body weight. Thus, there is a
need to supplement the diet with high energy feed that will contain balanced amount of protein
and help in maximizing weight gain (Aguilar et al. 2013).
 The diet does not show presence of vitamins in the feed. Although vitamins and trace minerals do
not contribute much to the overall feed cost, they are imperative in maintaining the metabolic
functions of broilers. Growing chickens are most commonly found to interchangeably use betaune
with choline owing to the function related to methylation. Furthermore, vitamin B12 has also been
found to reduce requirement of choline in the diet of a broiler. Vitamin A, D3, E and B12 should
be present in broiler starter feed in proportion of 7.0MIU, 2.0MIU, 6.0TIU, and 10.0mg,
respectively (Rengaraj and Hong 2015). On the other hand, vitamin D2 is found to exhibit low
activity for poultry. Absence of vitamins from the diet may contribute to a range of symptoms such
as, decreased egg production, thin shelled eggs, retarded growth, enlarged hocks, intramuscular
bleeding and poor feathering (Garcia et al. 2013). Thus, the diet should have contained adequate
amounts of vitamins as well.
 Lack of antibiotics and antiprotozoal agents. Antibiotics are generally added to poultry feed owing
to their anti-microbial action. They act as essential growth promoting agents by destroying several
harmful bacteria that stays in the gut of the poultry birds. Furthermore, supplementation of broiler
starter diet with appropriate antibiotics often results in faster conversion of the feed to muscle,
thereby facilitating rapid growth. The major benefits also include increasing efficiency and
reducing the risk of infectious disease (Khan et al. 2012). Use of penicillin and tetracycline in
broiler starter feed has shown substantial improvements in hatchability and egg production.
Absence of adequate antibiotics in the chart provided would increase susceptibility of the broilers
to production of eggs that are of a poor quality. Furthermore, coccidiosis is a parasitic disease
that commonly affects all poultry birds. It occurs due to coccidia infestation in the intestines.
Supplementation of the feed with antiprotozoal agent coccidiostat will help in controlling
infestation of several worms such as, tapeworm, roundworm and capillary worms (Bienenmann-
Ploum et al. 2012). Thus, there is a need to add products such as hygromycin B in the feed.
 Generally much of phosphate remains unavailable to poultry due to its bound state with phytate.
This results in excretion of excess phosphate and an oversupply in manure. Owing to this fact