Dietary Effects of Ca-Zeolite Supplementation on Water Consumption and Carcass Characteristics of Broilers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to ascertain the influence of natural Ca-zeolite consisting mainly of clinoptilolite and mordenite as a feed additive on the water consumption and some carcass characteristics of the broilers. One day old, 240 sexed Ross 208 broiler chicks obtained from a commercial hatchery were divided into 4 treatment groups of 60 birds each. Four experimental diets were tested with four levels of Ca-zeolite (0, 1, 3 and 5%) with completely randomized design with 3 replicates and 20 chicks per replicate and stocked with 14 birds m(-2). The usage of various levels Ca-zeolite in diets did not have any significant effect on water consumption, water/feed ratio (mL g(-1)) during the 6 weeks trial and some carcass characteristics (live, cold carcass, drumstick, breast, wings, back, neck and edible giblets weights) in two sexes and mixed sex between the groups at 21 and 42 days of age (p>0.05). Feed consumption did not differ considerably between the groups in 6 weeks (p>0.05) but there are differences between the groups from 2-5 weeks (p<0.05). Ca-zeolite addition did not affect negatively viabilities in each group (95.55, 100.00, 100.00 and 100.00) (p>0.05). Finally, the values achieved by the addition of Ca-zeolite to broiler diets were usually in acceptable scale.