COMPARATIVE EFFICACY OF VITAMIN D SOURCES ON GROWTH RESPONSE AND BONE MINERALIZATION IN BROILERS

This study reports the comparative effects of various sources of vitamin D on growth and bone mineralization in broiler birds. For this purpose, vitamin D-3 and its metabolites 25 (OH) D-3 and 1 alpha OH D-3 were added to a basal diet containing CP (20%) and ME (2900 kcal/kg) without any animal protein source. In this study, four hundred and eighty day old Hubbard broiler chicks were randomly divided into 16 experimental units (30 birds/ unit). Four experimental diets i.e. control (without vitamin D supplementation), VD3 (control + vitamin D-3; 9g/ton of feed), HyD (control + HyD circulating form; 5.52 g/ ton of feed) and Alpha D-3 (control + Alpha D-3 Hormonal form; 12.5g/ ton of feed) were randomly assigned to the experimental units. The birds of each replicate were weighed to determine growth, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio for 35 days. On day-21 and day-35, two birds from each replicate were randomly selected and slaughtered for determining carcass yield, tibial density, ash, relative organ weights and calcium and phosphorus analysis (from sera). Data showed that supplementation of vitamin D sources improved the growth performance and feed efficiency (P<0.05). However, carcass characteristics and organ weights were not significantly different. Tibial ash, tibial calcium and phosphorus and toe ash were significantly improved in the birds fed by vitamin D supplemented diet (P<0.05). It is concluded that supplementation of vitamin D enhances the growth and feed efficiency in broilers, therefore vitamin D can be supplemented in the diet of broilers.