Dietary inclusion of spray-dried plasma (SDP) may change the performance of broilers reared under challenge conditions, with a positive effect particularly in the first stages of life.

That is the conclusion of a paper in the latest issue of Journal of Applied Poultry Research, which reports two experiments conducted to evaluate the effect of titrated levels of SDP in broilers diets submitted to various types of health challenge.

J.D. Henn of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and co-authors there, at the Federal University of Viçosa and APC Inc. in the US and Brazil explain that in Experiment 1, dietary plasma levels (%) during the periods of 1 to 7, 8 to 21 and 22 to 42 days were T1 (0/0/0), T2 (1.5/0/0), T3 (1.5/0.5/0), T4 (3.0/0/0) and T5 (3.0/0.5/0), respectively.

In Experiment 2, dietary plasma levels were T1 (0/0/0), T2 (1.5/0/0), T3 (1.5/0.5/0) and T4 (1.5/0.5/0.25) fed during the periods of 1 to 8, 9 to 21, and 22 to 42 days, respectively.

In neither experiment were flock uniformity or mortality affected by SDP inclusion.

In experiment 1, SDP addition resulted in lower feed intake and improved feed conversion ratio from day 1 to 21. Lower feed intake was also observed during week 2 for broilers fed SDP from days 1 to 7, regardless of whether SDP was included in the diet over this period.

Performance variables were not affected by treatment from days 22 to 42, neither was carcass yield on day 42.

In Experiment 2, there was higher weight gain from days 8 to 21 and 1 to 42 in birds fed SDP than those not fed plasma. Broilers in the T2 group had higher feed intake during the total experimental period than those in the T1 group.

Reference

^{Henn J.D., L. Bockor, M.S. Vieira, A.M.L. Ribeiro, A.M. Kessler, L. Albino, H. Rostagno, J.D. Crenshaw, J.M. Campbell and L.F.S. Rangel. 2013. Inclusion of porcine spray-dried plasma in broiler diets. J. Appl. Poult. Res. 22(2):229-237. doi: 10.3382/japr.2012-00613}