GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND GUT MORPHOLOGY OF BROILER PRESTARTER CHICKS FED L-THREONINE SUPPLEMENTED DIETS

Abstract

Threonine is considered as the third limiting amino acid in corn-soybean meal-based diets, following methionine and lysine, and is crucial for optimal growth and development of poultry birds. This study was designed to determine the influence of dietary L-threonine supplementation greater than National Research Council (NRC) recommended level on growth performance and gut morphology of broiler chickens. In a 14-day feeding trial, one hundred and sixty (160) one-day old Abor Acre chicks were allotted into four dietary treatments with five replicates with eight birds per replicate in a completely randomised design. Treatment 1 was the basal diet with no Lthreonine supplementation (control), while treatments 2, 3 and 4 were basal diet supplemented with 10, 20, and 30% L-threonine greater than NRC recommendation, respectively. Data was subjected to descriptive statistics and ANOVA at α0.05. Growth performance indices were measured. At day 14, samples from the jejunum were collected for histomorphology. There were no significant (p>0.05) differences in the growth performance indices measured across the experimental treatments. Birds fed L threonine diet >10% NRC (114.00 µm) and >30% NRC (119.20 µm) had shallow crypt depth compared to control (161.40 µm). However, birds fed >30% NRC (5.62) had higher villus height/crypt depth ratio compared to control (3.91). In conclusion, L-threonine supplementation had no influence on growth performance of broiler chickens. However, L-threonine supplementation 30% greater than NRC recommendation improved the gut morphology of the birds.