Borassus aethiopum Mature Fruits' Dried Pulp Effect on Cobb 500 Broilers Growth Performance and Their Blood Plasma Cholesterol Contents

Tagouèlbè Tiho , Gningnini Alain Koné, Zégoua Regis N’gatta and Kouamé Bertin Kouadio

Copyright: © 2022. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Tagouèlbè Tiho, Gningnini Alain Koné, Zégoua Regis N’gatta and Kouamé Bertin Kouadio, 2022. Borassus aethiopum Mature Fruits' Dried Pulp Effect on Cobb 500 Broilers Growth Performance and Their Blood Plasma Cholesterol Contents. International Journal of Poultry Science, 21: 65-72.

DOI: 10.3923/ijps.2022.65.72

URL: https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ijps.2022.65.72

MATERIALS AND METHODS

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Diet preparation and broilers rearing: First of all, some Borassus aethiopum mature fruits were collected. Then, they were sorted and the undamaged fruits were stored for three or four additional days for better ripeness. Afterward, they were pilled and the fibrous pulp was removed and dried in ovens at 70°C until obtaining a constant weight⁷. Secondly, some dried yellow corn and commercial premix (Koudijs, Advanced Nutritional Products, De Heus Animal Nutrition, NL 14841, The Netherlands) for broilers were bought. During the first 3 weeks the chicks were fed on a starter diet. From week 4, the birds were allotted in two groups with two different diets (control and test diet) (Table 1). In T1, 20% of the yellow corn was substituted by Borassus aethiopum ripe fruits dried pulp.

Broilers rearing: A total of 150 day-old Cobb-500 broiler chicks were bought from a hatchery in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The birds were housed at the graduate school of agriculture experimental station, at the National Polytechnic Institute Felix Houphouet Boigny (INP-HB) in Yamoussoukro. Before their arrival day, The chicks’ house was prepared, sanitized and its floor was covered with wood chips and borders were covered with #46443D plastic to protect birds from cold air. At night time, rearing area of 15 m² (5×3 m) was electrically heated with three electric lamps of 200 Watts each.

During daytime, electric lamps were turned off, the #46443D plastics were raised up so that the outside warm air could be circulated and this starter period lasted for 3 weeks.

Chicks were fed two times a day to avoid the wastage of mashed feedstuffs. The daily ration was divided into two portions,1/3 and 2/3 and they were given at 8 am and 4 pm, respectively. When the feed quantities of the day were completely consumed, then the last quantity per chick was increased by 5 g. During the starting period, five chicks died. In absence of an expert in chicks sexing, all chicks were sexed on day 21. Chicks were sexed by body feather cover method and were individually weighted. On day 21, the females had enough feathers on their wings and whole body compared to males. Moreover, compared to females, males’ crests were more developed. So that, the errors could be minimized.

Thereafter, they were transferred to the grower and finisher places and fed on 2 finishing diets (T0 and T1). Specifically, the chickens were raised on woods like traditional systems. So, the birds were not on the floor and all the birds’ droppings were below. Based on the average mean and standard error, five out layer birds were discarded from the experimental group. Thereafter, 140 remaining birds were randomly allotted in 2 groups of 70 chickens each and the diet test lasted for 4 additional weeks. Thus, the experiment covered 7 weeks in total.

From day 22-35, feed quantities were Increased step by step, the quantity per bird per day was stabilized on 130 g from day 36-49. Within a diet group, males and females were peaking together. But, from day 28-49, the birds were weighed, the data were recorded by considering the diet and the gender of each bird. The rearing area was 20.24 square meters (4.6×4.4 m = 20.24 m²) for each group. Thus, the chickens’ density was less than 4 birds per square meter. Then, on days 28, 35, 42 and 49 the chickens were weighed. From day 21-49, the chickens were fed only once at 12 O’clock. They were weighed before feeding. During all the experiments the birds had ad-libitum access to water.

Blood collection and its cells count: In each diet (T0 and T1), the two genders were considered. For data collection, 6 birds of similar weight (μ±δ, α = 0.05) (3 females and 3 males) were randomly selected per diet, a total 12 broilers. The birds were slaughtered and blood samples were collected into tubes containing some ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) as anticoagulant⁹. The tubes were manually shaken to avoid the clots formation. The blood count was performed with a SYSMEX KX 21N hematology machine (Zhejiang Xinke Medical Technology Co., Ltd, Zhejiang city, China), at the national blood transfusion center in Yamoussoukro (Côte d’Ivoire). The hematological parameters such as hemoglobin (HGB), packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cells (RBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), white blood cells (WBC), platelet (PLT), lymphocytes, monocytes, granulocytes percentage, respectively LYM%, MON% and GRAN% were analyzed.

Blood plasma lipids profile: During the growing and finishing periods, the chickens were fed one time at 12 O’clock each day. Then, the birds were slaughtered at 8 am for the blood collection using the Friedewald et al.¹⁰ approach. So, blood samples of birds were collected 20 h after the last meal. The blood was collected in dry tubes, containing clots activation agent, such as Factor XII (Hagemann Factor), kept at room temperature for 20 min for precipitation. Thereafter, it was centrifuged for 5 min. Then, the plasma was collected and stored in a refrigerator at 4°C. As soon as possible, the cholesterols’ contents reading was noted.

For total cholesterol assessment (Tot. C, Eq. 1), Cypress Diagnostics, (Ref: HB 006 Lot: 191 reagent, Hulshout, Belgium) was used¹¹. So, to get the working solution, reagent 2 was poured in 1. Then, 1 mL of this working solution was put in each used graduated tube. Thereafter, the standard solution was made by pouring 10 μL of the standard solution in one tube, containing 1 mL of the working solution. Likewise, the blank was made by pouring 10 μL distilled water into each tube. Finally, 10 μL of the plasma was poured in each graduated tube, except in the blank and the standard. Then, the readings were proceeded by using a UV-visible spectrophotometer set at 500 nm (Shimadzu UV-1601 PC, Kyoto, Japan).

Again, following Kouassi et al.¹¹ approach, for high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL.C, Eq. 2), Cypress Diagnostics was used, (Ref: HB 007 Lot: 322 reagent from Belgium). Only 1 mL of the plasma was mixed with 100 μL of HDL.C reagent. The newly gained medium was centrifuged. Then, 10 μL were collected and similarly for Tot. C steps, the preparations were done for readings. Finally, the cholesterol content was computed. Friedewald et al.¹⁰ equation was used to compute the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL.C, Eq. 4) content and the ratio of triglycerides over 5 is also known as the very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL.C, Eq. 4). The results were expressed in milligram per deciliter (mg dL^–1). For triglycerides determination (Eq. 3), after preparing the corresponding working solution, the process remained the same as in Tot.C assessment. So, Tot.C, HDL. C and triglycerides absorbance were assessed by using a UV-visible spectrophotometer (Shimadzu UV-1601 PC, Kyoto, Japan) set at 505 nm.

where, 200 and 50 were the standard concentrations

After cholesterols and triglycerides analysis, blood plasma total protein was checked (Eq. 5). Also, Cypress Diagnostics was used (Ref: HB 0193 and lot TP 00331). Its working solution was previously prepared. So, the plasma was diluted in distilled water (DW), (Plasma/DW, 1/1, v/v). In this way, 200 μL of plasma was put in 200 μL of DW. Alike the previous steps, 10 μL of the newly made medium was collected and using the working solution, the samples were prepared for readings, using a UV-visible spectrophotometer (Shimadzu UV-1601 PC, Kyoto, Japan) set at 546 nm.

Statistical analysis: The weekly weight gain (WWG) was assessed through Excel trend line model, equation chart and r² value on chart were displayed (Eq. 6). Thereafter, the weekly weight gain was determined using Eq. 6 first derivate. The confidence interval was set 95% for the examination of broilers’ live weight.

For blood plasma profile quantification, 2 blood samples were collected and 2 readings were made by sample. So, we got in total 4 readings for each combination (diet×gender) per chicken. Also, the data were submitted to a factorial analysis of variance (two-ways, ANOVA), using XLSTAT 2014. The least squares means were separated using Duncan’s multiple range tests. For hematological parameters and blood plasma lipids profile analysis (cholesterol, triglycerides and protein) the confidence interval was set at 99%.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

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Broilers’ growth performance: For a given diet, the male broilers tended to grow faster than females (T0 versus T1, Fig. 1). For instance, from 4-7 week, T1 male broilers had a lower growth rate than those of the control group T0. Remarkably, the difference between these two groups of males was highly significant (p<0.0001). T0 (FT0, female birds) tended to grow faster than those of T1 (FT1, female birds, p<0.0001). Even if, 7 days after the diets test implementation (day 28), the weight differences between MT0 (1100.32±35.51 g), MT1 (1006.76±33.91 g) and FT0 (1003.29±30.88 g) were not significant, from week 5 (day 35) to week 7 (day 49), MT0 group showed higher weight than those of MT1 and FT0. Interestingly, all Excel derived models on growing curves were supported by equations with high coefficient of determination (r²>98.87%). With such goodness of fit, weekly weight gain (WWG) was deducted with the first derivative (Eq. 7).

Figure 1 shows that the weekly weight gain for MT0, FT0, MT1 and FT1 was 686.74, 502.48, 532.86 and 458.14 g, respectively. Similar result was reported by Panigrahy et al.¹² who studied the growth performances of male and female broiler birds. Indeed, with Cobb-500 broilers, on day 28, Panigrahy et al.¹² observed no significant difference in live weight between roosters and hens fed with the same diet. However, after day 28, males tended to grow faster than females, even with native chickens¹¹. This tendency was already observed by Shim et al.¹³ who reported that on the day 48, after slaughtering commercial broilers, the males were heavier (3.57 kg) than females (2.98 kg).

Based on difference of live weight at 7th week between cocks (MT0 versus MT1, +590.12 g, +22.68%, p 0.0001) and hens (FT0 versus FT1, +198.46 g, +8.59%, p = 0.0283), it was noteworthy that dried pulp of Borassus aethiopum was well accepted by Cobb-500 broilers. Obviously, MT1 could not catch up MT0 because of the diet structure. Chewning et al.¹⁴ observed lower growth performance in birds fed with mash diet as compared to pellet or corn with particle size of around 0.3 and 0.6 mm. For example, Chewning et al.¹⁴ reported that mash, pellet and corn particle size of 0.3 and 0.6 mm led to body weight of 2,733, 3,227, 2,981 and 2,979 g, respectively in males and 2,239, 2,626, 2,440 and 2,415 g, respectively in females. Since 20% of the yellow corn was replaced by Borassus aethiopum dried pulp, thus density of T1 was reduced. So, this density reduction could explain the reason why MT0 birds grown faster than those of MT1. But male birds fed on low density diet T1 tended to grow faster than hens fed on high density diet T0. Therefore, it can be concluded that the hormones are more effective on sex dimorphism than diet. Numerically, MT1 grown faster than FT0, for 2601.67 versus 2510 g (+91.67 g, +3.52%). These weights were not statistically different (p = 0.2212).

Blood cells count: Table 2 shows the hematological qualities. Kuttappan et al.⁹ assessed white striation in broiler breast fillets and found no significant difference between treatments (T0 and T1). Nonetheless, the values of parameters were quite different from those of their normal chickens. Since they worked only on males. For example, the white blood cells (WBC), in the present study was 43.83 and 45.07×10³ μL^–1, for MT0 and MT1, while Kuttappan et al.⁹ found the value 24.04×10³ μL^–1 for white blood cells. For body immunology, WBC count observed in the current study (44.45×10³ μL^–1) was higher (84.90%) than that noted by Kuttappan et al.⁹.