Effects of dietary energy level and guanidino acetic acid supplementation on growth performance, carcass quality and intestinal architecture of broilers

Abstract

Energy, known as the most expensive nutrient in broiler feed, is what strongly adjusts and affects the growth of broilers. Creatine has a key role in cellular energy metabolism and could be synthesised from guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) in the liver; however, its de novo synthesis is not able to adequately fulfil the demand of energy metabolism, especially in fast-growing modern broilers. So the aim of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of commercial GAA in energy-reduced broiler diets on performance and intestinal development. Overall, 11 400 day-old Ross 308 chicks were randomly allocated to six dietary treatments with ten replicates in each. Dietary treatments were designed as a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement with three levels of dietary metabolisable energy (AME_n)  recommended by Aviagen for Ross 308 broilers (12.55 MJ/kg, 12.97 MJ/kg and 13.38 MJ/kg for starter, grower and finisher, respectively), 0.209 MJ/kg and 0.418 MJ/kg reduced and two levels of GAA (0.00% and 0.06%). There was no significant GAA × AME_n interaction for all performance parameters, carcass traits and jejunal morphological parameters (except for the villus width). Reduction of dietary AME_n (0.209 MJ/kg and/or 0.418 MJ/kg) caused a significant depression in body weight (BW) gain (P < 0.001) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P < 0.001). However, a decreasing AME_n level increased villus height (P < 0.003) and villus surface area (P < 0.03), while crypt depth and villus width were similar. The GAA improved final BW and FCR by 1.77% and 1.66%, respectively (P < 0.001). Birds fed low energy diets supplemented with GAA showed a significant improvement in the performance so that BW and FCR were the same as in the control birds; however, no such positive effects were obtained in jejunal villus development. Hence, it might be concluded that 0.06% GAA supplementation improves BW and FCR and can save at least 0.209 MJ/kg dietary AME_n in broiler diets.