ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2016, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (11): 2248-2256.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2016.11.012

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Effect of in Ovo Feeding of β-Hydroxy-β-Methylbutyrate on Hatchability, Performance and Skeletal Muscle Development in Broilers

MA You-biao#,ZHANG Hai-jun#,WANG Jing,WU Shu-geng*,QI Guang-hai   

  1. (Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology of Ministry of Agriculture, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China)
  • Received:2016-01-08 Online:2016-11-23 Published:2016-11-23

Abstract:

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of in ovo feeding of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) on hatchability, growth performance and skeletal muscle development in broilers. A total of 540 fertilized eggs from Arbor Acre broilers were allotted into 3 treatments: one control group (without injection), and two injection groups injected with 1 mL 0.9% saline (saline group) and 1 mL 0.1% HMB (HMB group) at 7 d of incubation, respectively. After hatching, 72 healthy male chicks were selected from each treatment and randomly divided into 6 replicates with 12 birds each. The results showed that: 1) In ovo feeding had no significant effect on hatchability of fertilized eggs (P>0.05). 2) Compared with the other groups, HMB injection significantly increased the BW of broiler at hatch and 21 d posthatch and markedly elevated ADG during the first 21 days (P<0.05). 3) At 7 d of age, breast muscle percentage of chicks from HMB injection group were increased by 1.01% than that of chicks from saline group (P=0.019). In ovo feeding HMB significantly increased breast muscle percentage of broilers by 1.11% (P<0.05) than the control group and by 1.04% (P<0.05) than the saline injection group at 21 d of age. 4) The abdominal fat percentage of chicks from HMB injection group was the lowest, and significantly lower than that of chicks from the control group at 21 d of age (P=0.018). 5) Compared with the control group and saline group, chicks from HMB injection group had significantly higher myofiber diameter at hatch and 4 d of age (P<0.05). 6) At hatch and 7 d of age, the mitotic activity of satellite cells in breast muscle in chicks from HMB group were significantly higher than that from other groups (P<0.05). 7) At 7 d of age, plasma Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) content in HMB injection group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference between HMB and the saline groups (P>0.05). In ovo feeding HMB may improve BW at hatch, increase mitotic activity of satellite cells and IGF-1 content in the blood circulation, thus facilitating the breast muscle development and promoting the growth in the early period. In ovo feeding HMB did not affect hatchability and feed conversion ratio in broilers. Growth performance was not different between the control and saline injection groups.

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