physiological, productive and reproductive studies on the effects of supplemented basal diet with organic and inorganic sulfur on chickens

Abstract

Three experiments were carried out during the period from 18th January 1999 to 121 September 2000 to study the effect of supplemented basal diet with organic and inorganic sulfur on some physiological, productive and reproductive characters on chickens. Supplemented basal diet with 0.1% sodium sulfate improved body weight, body weight gain, and feed efficiency, where supplemented basal diet with different sulfur forms and levels decreased feed intake. Survival broiler chick percent was improved by sulfate supplementation. Except for feather percent that improved for basal diet supplemented with 0.2% and 0.4% sodium sulfate and density that increased by 0.1% methionine supplementation, other slaughter performance wasn't affect by sulfur supplementation. There were no evidence that sodium sulfate supplementation effected adversely on any of tibia performance until 0.4% sodium sulfate. Sulfur supplementation had no side effect on any blood and thermoregulation parameters of broiler chicks, but it improved hematocrit, M.C.V. and M.C.H.C. values. Most egg production performance improved by sulfur supplementation, where supplemented basal diet with 0.1% sodium sulfate gave the best rate of lay, egg mass per hen per day and feed efficiency. Except for egg density that increased by sulfur supplementation any of egg and egg shell performance affected by sulfur supplementation. Hematocrit and hemoglobin value for layer improved by some sodium sulfate levels, moreover all sodium sulfate levels increased G.O.T. Semen volume, movement and total number improved by different sodium sulfate levels and any of hatching parameter effect by sodium sulfate.