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The utilization of vaccines has proven to be a good strategy
to prevent coccidiosis but the process of immunity acquisition needs to be approached
from a nutritional point of view as well if complete success in broiler performance
is to be achieved. It has been reported that Glutamine (GLU) plays a key role
both in the gastrointestinal tract and the immune system and its utilization
could be beneficial to cocci-vaccinated broilers. In this study, twelve hundred
one-day-old male chicks were vaccinated at a commercial hatchery with a coccidiosis
vaccine and randomly allocated to four treatments, each of which had six replications
with 50 birds per pen. Birds were maintained in pens with built up wood shavings
litter. Each treatment consisted of the same basal diet that met average nutrient
levels in the U.S. poultry industry with four different inclusion rates of GLU
(0, 0.5, 0.75 and 1%). Birds were fed the experimental diets from 1 to 28 days
of age and a common unsupplemented diet to 42 d. Body weights were significantly
improved at 21 and 28 days for all the treatments where the GLU was included.
Feed conversion was not significantly affected by the inclusion of GLU. There
were no significant differences in body weight and feed conversion at 42 days
but the numerical difference in weight between the control and the treatments
with GLU observed earlier were maintained. At 43 days, eight birds per pen were
processed in a pilot processing plant. Breast meat yield was not significantly
different among treatments. Glutamine proved to be beneficial during the process
of immunity acquisition improving broiler performance significantly until 28
days and maintaining the body weight difference until the end of the experiment.
