INFLUENCE OF DIETARY BETAINE ON NUTRIENT UTILIZATION AND DIGESTIVE ENZYME ACTIVITY IN YELLOW-FEATHER BROILERS DURING STARTER PHASE Authors: W.C. Liu, B.H. Ou, Y.L. Yuan, C.Y. Sun, M. Xiao, Z.H. Zhao, L.L. An Journal: Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences (JAPS) ISSN: 1018-7081 (Print), 2309-8694 (Online) Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Pages: 251-254 Year: 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.36899/JAPS.2020.1.0029 URL: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.36899/JAPS.2020.1.0029 Publisher: Pakistan Agricultural Scientists Forum Abstract:

The present experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with different levels of betaine on nutrient utilization and digestive enzyme activity in indigenous yellow-feather broilers during starter phase. A total of 288 male, one-d-old Huaixiang chickens with an average initial body weight (BW) of 44.52 ± 1.07 g were randomly allotted to 4 treatments. Each dietary treatment consisted of 6 replicates, with 12 birds per replicate. The 4 dietary treatments were corn-soybean meal-based diets and supplemented with 0, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg betaine, respectively. The trial period lasted 28 d. It was found that dietary betaine supplementation improved the calcium (Ca) utilization (cubic, P=0.0187). Meanwhile, dietary supplementation with different levels of betaine increased the trypsin activity (quadratic, P=0.0445) and lipase activity (cubic, P=0.0344) of the jejunum. Taken together, this study revealed that betaine could promote the digestive function in indigenous yellow-feather broilers during starter phase.

Keywords: betaine; digestive function; indigenous yellow-feather broilers; starter phase