Abstract:
Commercial broiler breeding programs have greatly focused on increased growth rates, not considering the lack of pulmonary capacity to sustain this demand. Although not all broilers succumb to ascites the syndrome is still present, indicating the different genetic susceptibility to this disorder. Therefore, by focusing on blood parameters to identify the causative factors for ascites syndrome one can potentially enable the prediction of ascites in juvenile broilers. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of supplemental arginine and iron supplementation on broilers in relation to ascites development and alleviation. Arginine and iron respectively have been widely researched, however the interaction of the two was not a focus point. Performance parameters and several blood parameters such as Hb, Hct, SO2, pCO2, pO2, pH and HCO3 were measured. The results from this study showed that iron supplementation did significantly affect blood parameters such as pH, pCO2, HCO3 and TCO2, however only numerical differences were found in Hb and Hct. Nevertheless, the Hb and Hct results still showed a trend towards higher levels in broilers supplemented with organic iron.
