Performance and broiler health was not affected by glycerin with high methanol content included in dietsABSTRACT:
Due to the great variability in the composition of glycerin derived from the biodiesel, it is essential to search for information which helps establish it with an alternative in poultry feed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of inclusion of glycerin with high methanol content in diets for broilers on performance and blood parameters. They used 90 Cobb male broiler chicks with 8 days old, distributed in a completely randomized design with three treatments (0, 6 and 12% glycerin inclusion levels) and six replications of five birds each, a total of 18 experimental units. Diets were formulated based on corn and soybean meal to meet the nutritional requirements and glycerin used contained 1.4% methanol and 3158Kcal/kg of metabolizable energy. At 21, 33 and 42 days of age the remains of feed and the birds were weighed to determine the feed intake, body weight, body weight gain and feed conversion. Were collected 1 to 3ml of venous blood of the birds during the last days of each phase (19 to 21, 31 to 33 and 40 to 42 days of age) for determination of hematocrit, hemoglobin concentration, reticulocyte total plasma proteins and fibrinogen. To evaluate the serum biochemistry were collected venous blood of birds without anticoagulant, only in the final phase (40 to 42 days). Performance data, hematological and biochemical obtained were submitted to analysis of variance. We used the Tukey test with α = 0.05 probability, to compare the means. There were no statistical difference between the treatments on the performance parameters and biochemical and blood parameters, except plasma proteins for between 19 and 21, which increased with the inclusion of glycerin, and reticulocytes that reduced with the inclusion of glycerin. The inclusion of up to 12% glycerin with 1.4% residual methanol in broiler diets (8 to 42 days of age) can be performed without loss in performance and health.
INDEX TERMS: Broilers; glycerin; methanol; diet; alternative feed; sodium