The incubation and neonatal periods account for about 50% of the productive life of a 2 kg market broiler. The perinatal period, the last 4 days before hatch through the first 4 days after hatch, is most critical for development and survival of commercial broilers; and it is the period during which nutritional conditioning and perinatal programming can occur. The perinatal chick makes the metabolic and physiological transition from nutrition supplied in the egg to feed, and it is functionally “programmed” to adapt its environment.
Peter Ferket (North Carolina State University) and Zehave Uni (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) presented the results of their research at the Alltech Symposium in Lexington, Kentucky, held last week.
A chick’s first meal occurs when they consume the amnion fluid before internal pipping (about 18 d and 25 d of incubation in broilers and turkeys, respectively). Some critical nutrients in the amnion may be limited because of parental nutrition constraints related to weight control and egg production rate. Incubation distress can also adversely affect perinatal development by altering nutrient partitioning during the plateau stage of oxygen consumption. When oxygen availability to the late-term embryo is limited by low egg conductance or poor incubator ventilation, embryos and hatchlings may suffer low glycogen status and impaired enteric development.
Supplementing the amnion with appropriate nutrients is a novel way to feed critical dietary components to embyos. Indeed this “in ovo feeding” may “jump-start” development. Improving the nutritional status of the perinatal chick or poult by in ovo feeding yields several advantages: including improved digestive capacity; increased growth rate and feed efficiency; reduced post- hatch mortality and morbidity; improved immune response to enteric antigens; reduced incidence of developmental skeletal disorders; and increased muscle development and breast meat yield.
The benefits of in ovo feeding (IOF) on early growth and development of poultry have been demonstrated by several experiments in our laboratories. In ovo feeding broilers and turkeys has increased hatchling weights by 1% to 7% over controls, and this advantage has been observed to sustain until at least 35 d. The degree of response to in ovo feeding may depend upon genetics, breeder hen age, egg size, and incubation conditions. In ovo feeding of chicken, turkeys and duck embryos consistently accelerated the digestive and nutrient uptake capacity of the digestive tract during the perinatal period. Positive effects have been observed with IOF solutions containing NaCl, sucrose, maltose, and dextrin β-hydroxy-β-methyl butyrate, arginine, egg white protein, and Zn- methionine. In ovo feeding has been observed to improve glycogen and metabolic energy status; increase hatchability; advance morphometic development of the intestinal tract and mucin barrier; enhance expression of genes for brush boarder enzymes (sucrase-isomaltase, leucine aminopeptidase) and their biological activity, and enhance expression of nutrient transporters, SGLT-1, PEPT-1, and NaK ATPase; improve bone development and reduce leg asymmetry of hatchlings; and increase breast muscle hatch. In ovo feeding clearly advances the digestive capacity, energy status, and development of critical tissues of the perinatal chick or poultry about 2 to 3 d. Thus, in ovo feeding technology has established a new science of perinatal nutrition that will open opportunities for greater production efficiency and animal welfare; it may be a necessary means to optimize poultry production.
