neurological functions.
Scientifically speaking …
By Matthew Wedzerai
Matthew Wedzerai holds an MSc in Animal Science (Specialisation: Animal nutrition) from Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He also holds a Diploma in Pig husbandry & Animal Feed, PTC+ College, The Netherlands. He has 7 years’ experience in the pig husbandry and animal feed industry and has been a writer of articles based on scientific research since 2014.
Effects of reducing inclusion levels of vitamin A and E in poultry, and possible alternatives Following the outbreak of fire at the BASF citral plant in Germany – a company which manufactures 45% of the global supply of citral, the essential precursor in the manufacture of both vitamin A and vitamin E – there is a potential global shortage of the supply of these vitamins in 2018. As a result, feed producers are shifting their focus towards exploration of possible alternatives.
The question is: can the inclusion levels of these vitamins be reduced without negative effects on animal performance, and which alternatives can be explored? Before we look into the above mentioned question, let’s have
a quick check on the functions and recommended levels of these vitamins in poultry.
Functions Vitamin A - Vitamin A is mainly required for normal growth, reproduction and maintenance of epithelial cells
-
It is also important for proper immune response; deficiency causes reduced immune response, and advanced cases necrosis and keratinisation of mucosa of alimentary and respiratory tract occurs.
Vitamin E - Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant and important for normal
- Deficiency leads to crazy chick disease, muscular dystrophy – frequently seen in older and mature birds.
Requirements in poultry Vitamin A requirements
The requirement for vitamin A is listed in NRC (1994) as: 1,500 IU per kg of diet for broilers, growing geese and growing layer replacement birds (this requirement is more general, not specific to a particular strain) The requirement for laying and breeding chickens, assuming a feed intake of 100 g per day, is higher at 3,000 IU per kg of diet.
Vitamin E requirements
The requirement for vitamin E is listed in NRC (1994) as: 10 IU/kg for broilers
10 mg/kg for broiler breeders and, 5 mg/kg for layers
N/B: Normally, higher inclusion levels (than given in NRC, 1994) are used to allow: - For loss of activity due to oxidative destruction of the vitamin A ester during feed processing and storage, - Variability of carotenes in feedstuffs, changes in feed consumption, genetic differences in animals and stress due to disease and other environmental factors. - However, due to changes in genetics over time, and new targets in performance, new requirements have been developed (see example from Hubbard, below) for vitamin E and A requirements for starter, grower and finisher broiler.
Potential alternatives Two possibilities are reducing the inclusion levels and partial substitution with a product supplements which offers similar function (or mode of action) to the vitamin in question.
A. Effect of reducing or exclusion of vitamins in broiler diets Study results 1 Results showed that the removal of vitamin-trace mineral premix from broiler diets 35 to 42 d of age has no significant effect on body weight, feed consumption, feed efficiency, mortality, carcass weight, and carcass yield (Durand et al., 2014) (Table 1).
Table 1. Effect of removing vitamin-mineral premix in broiler finisher diet during 28 to 42 d of age on body weight (BW), feed intake (FI), FCR, mortality, carcass weight and yield (Durand et al., 2014)
Treatment Control No vitamin-mineral premix 1 BW (g)
1811 1659
FI (g)
3633 3492
FCR
2.00 2.11
Mortality (%)
4.07 2.78
Carcass Weight (g)
1250 1123
Carcass yield (%)
69.0 67.8
The vitamin and mineral premix provides the following per kilogram of diet: vitamin A: 10435 IU (all-trans-retinal); vitamin E: 5.85 mg (dl- tocopherol).
PAGE 14 ARCH/ /A AGE 4 M MARCHAPPRILRIL 2018 2018 F FEED OMPOUNDER C COMPOUNDER EED
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