The objective of this work was to evaluate the performance and the bone mineralization of broilers, at 1 to 21 days of age, and the bioavailability of phosphorus in commercial phosphates utilized in the broilers feeding. One thousand and eight male chickens of one day old were distributed in a completely randomized design, in fourteen treatments, with six replications of twelve birds each. Phosphates evaluated were: defluorinated phosphate, monocalcium B, dicalcium A, dicalcium B and dicalcium C, with two levels of available phosphorus (0.30 and 0.40%). For the evaluation of the relative bioavailability, the abscissa technique was used, and the monocalcium A phosphate was taken as standard (value of 100%), with four levels of available phosphorus: 0.25, 0.35, 0.45 and 0.55%. All the phosphates with 0.40% of available phosphorus levels propitiated similar weight gain to broilers. The monocalcium B resulted in higher bone mineralization of broilers than the defluorinated phosphate. The different phosphorus sources presented few differences in the values of relative bioavailability of phosphorus, with better results for the monocalcium B and with higher sensibility response for bone ashes than for body weight gain.
bioavailability; bone ash; performance; phosphorous sources
