Broilers feeding in ABF systems – antibiotic-free production systems

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The early nutrition of broilers is becoming more important as knowledge about the positive correlation between the early growth rate and market weight increases, as well as the impact of early growth on the development of weight uniformity and in the composition of the carcass. All these factors are even more critical in antibiotic-free production systems -ABF.

The optimization of early digestion is often the key to a successful farm program, since it is the best tool to prevent dysbacteriosis, coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis. Early weaned pigs face similar challenges, especially in ABF pig production systems. One of the key universal ingredients in pig-weaning diets is spray-dried plasma -SDP- which is not only a highly digestible protein source, but a functional protein source.

Certainly, it would be interesting to know and study the potential benefits associated with the inclusion of plasma in pre-initiation diets of broilers in ABF systems.

Plasma is collected during pig slaughter, and is normally separated from red cells by centrifugation.

SDP -spray-dried plasma results in a free-flowing flour composed of 75-80% crude protein, minerals and about 8% residual water. Approximately 95% of the proteins are albumins and globulins (Tumbleson et al, 1986). The amino acid profile of the SDP is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Nutritional Content of SDP * Total sulfurized amino acids,  ** Apparent Metabolizable Energy

Essential amino acids represent 40% of

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