Effects of arginine on the growth performance, hormones, digestive organ development and intestinal morphology in the early growth stage of layer chickens

摘要

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of arginine on the growth performance,hormones, digestive organ development and intestinal morphology of chicks of laying hens. Atotal of three hundred 1-d-old male Lohmann Brown chicks were randomly assigned to fivegroups, each with six replicate sets of 10 birds. The five groups were fed different diets containing1.19, 1.44, 1.69, 1.94 or 2.19% arginine from 1 d to 42 d of age. The results showed that dietary levels of arginine had a significant effect on body weight at 14, 28 and 42 d (p .05). The insulin-likegrowth factor-I (IGF-I) concentration in serum was significantly increased with increasing levels ofdietary arginine (p .05). With the increase in dietary arginine, chicks had a higher relative liverweight (p .05). Levels of 1.94 and 2.19% dietary arginine had a more positive effect on the length(p .05) and relative weight of the small intestine (p .05), respectively. The morphology of theduodenal mucosa and the villus height of the ileum in chicks were significantly affected by thedietary arginine levels (p .05). This study suggested that 1.44% dietary arginine provided themaximum body weight of layer chickens during their early development by increasing the villusheight in both the duodenum and ileum, whereas 2.19% dietary arginine inhibited the growth ofthe chicks via a shorter villus height in the intestinal mucosa and excessive serum IGF-I.