Growth Performance, Organ Weights and, Blood Parameters of Broilers Fed Diets Containing Graded Levels of Dietary Canola Meal and Supplemental Copper

An experiment with 495 one-day-old male broiler chicks was conducted to investigate the effects of different dietary levels of canola meal (0, 10, 20%) and copper (0, 125, 250 mg/kg) on performance, carcass characteristics and some blood parameters. A completely randomized design with 3 x 3 factorial arrangement was used with 5 replicates from 1 to 42 of age. Feed intake was not significantly affected by treatments during 1 to 21 d, 21 to 42 d and throughout the study (P>0.05). The body weight gain and feed conversion ratio was significantly impaired (P<0.05) when 20% canola meal was added in the diets between 1 to 21 d. Addition of copper significantly improved body weight gain (P<0.01) and feed conversion ratio (P<0.05) of the birds during the 21 to 42 d and throughout the study. Carcass yield significantly (P<0.05) increased due to addition of 250 mg/kg of copper. Proportion of thyroid glands (P<0.0001), breast, liver, gizzard, pancreas and cecal significantly (P<0.05) were affected by 20% canola meal. Plasma alkaline phosphatase and blood glutathione peroxidase activities were unaffected (P>0.05) by dietary treatments. An added level of 20% canola meal was significantly reduced plasma zinc concentration. Levels of copper supplementation increased (P<0.001) plasma copper and decreased (P<0.05) plasma zinc levels. Plasma lipids altered by supplementation of copper, so that decreased plasma triglycerides (P<0.01) and cholesterol (P<0.05) concentrations and also increased high density lipoprotein (P<0.05). In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that no effects of added canola meal up to 20% of the diet on the growth performance. In addition from this study it can conclude that supplementation with dietary copper had beneficial effects on growth performance and plasma biochemical characteristics of broiler chickens.