The effect of dietary supplementation with globin and spray‐dried porcine plasma on performance, digestibility and histomorphological traits in broiler chickens

This study evaluated the effects of globin and spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP) on growth performance, energy efficiency, digestibility and intestinal morphology of broiler chickens. A total of 336-day-old male broiler chickens were reared from 1 to 40 d of age and fed 3 diets (8 replicates/diet, 14 birds/replicate) during 3 feeding phases: starter (1–12 d), grower (12–25 d) and finisher (25–40 d). Isonitrogenous diets were formulated by replacing gluten protein isolate contained in the control diet (C diet) with spray dried porcine plasma in the plasma diet (SDPP diet). The globin diet (G diet) was obtained by adding globin on the top of C diet at a dose of 0.08%. Protein efficiency ratio (PER), nutrient digestibility (aD), energy efficiency (dEE) and net energy for production (NEp) were assessed during the three phases. At 12 d and 40 d of age, one bird per pen was slaughtered to sample gut, liver, spleen and bursa of Fabricius for histomorphological investigations. The administration of SDPP diet increased body weights of chickens at 12 (+60 g; p<0.001), 25 (+101 g; p <0.001) and 40 d (+130 g; p=0.018) of age compared to C and G diets, as well as PER (+17%), crude protein aD (+9.1%), and NEp (+12.5%) during the starter phase (p<0.001). Dietary globin and SDPP inclusion did not affect either the gut morphology or the histopathological findings in the birds at 12 and 40 d of age. Overall, these results confirm that dietary supplementation with spray-dried porcine plasma and, to a lesser extent, with globin can improve growth performance and dietary protein and energy utilization in broiler chickens without effect on gut functionality.