Broiler breeder age and dietary energy level on performance and pancreas lipase and trypsin activities of 7-days old chicks

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of broiler breeder age and the dietary energy level (2,900 and 3,200 kcal ME/kg) on performance and pancreas lipase and trypsin activities of chicks during the first week of life. The birds from the older breeders had higher feed intake (P = 0.001) and weight gain (P = 0.001) than chicks from the younger broiler breeders. The pancreas enzymes activities were not affected by broiler breeder age, however it was influenced by the dietary energy level. Chicks fed diet with high energy content showed higher lipase activity than those submitted to low dietary energy level (P = 0.013) and trypsin activity was not affected by energy diet. No improvement on chicks performance was observed, suggesting that is not necessary to feed diets with high energy level during the first week of age. © Asian Network for Scientific Information, 2004.