Effect of dietary L-arginine on carcass traits of broilers

A total of 300 one day old Ross 308 broiler chicks were used to examine the effect of supplementing ration with different levels of arginine on productive performance of broiler chickens. The chicks were allocated to 4 treatments groups (75 chicks for each group) and each treatment consisted of five replicates of 15 chicks each. The treatment groups were C, the control group (without any addition of arginine); T1, T2 and T3 groups in which arginine were included in the diet at levels of 0.02, 0.04 and 0.06 %, respectively. Two types of diets were used over the period of experiment, starter diet was used from one to 20 days of chicks' age and then grower diet was used till the end of the experiment (46 days of age). The results revealed that adding arginine to broiler diet especially at the level of 0.04% (T2) and 0.06% (T3) significantly increased (P<0.05) carcass weight, dressing percentages, percentages of breast, thigh and drumstick cuts. However, back and wing percentages decreased significantly in treated birds compared to control. The study concluded that arginine can be used as effective feed additive for improving productive performance of broilers.