Efecto de dos fuentes proteicas alternativas en la etapa de preinicio de pollos de engorde sobre su productividad y costos de producción

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of two alternative protein sources to soybean meal in the diet of broiler chickens: dehydrated plasma and poultry by-product meal during the pre-starter phase. A total of 777 one-day-old Cobb 500 broiler chickens with an average weight of 40 g ± 4 were used, distributed across three treatments with seven replicates. The treatments were: a plant-based diet (T1), dehydrated plasma at 3% (T2), and poultry by-product meal at 5% (T3). Productive indicators such as body weight, weekly and cumulative feed intake, feed conversion ratio, weekly and cumulative mortality, carcass yield, and European efficiency index were evaluated. Economic indicators such as production costs and profitability were also analyzed. During the experiment, a significant environmental challenge led to high mortality due to ascites syndrome. In terms of results, chickens fed T2 had higher weight gain during the fourth week (P<0.05), indicating a more efficient utilization of that diet. On the other hand, chickens from T3 exhibited the lowest mortality rate throughout the study. Regarding carcass yield, chickens from T2 achieved the highest weights in both whole carcass and live weight, with no significant differences found in the other productive variables. From an economic perspective, no profitability was achieved, as T2 was the most expensive despite the fact that dehydrated plasma was only administered during the first week, while T3 had the lowest production cost. In conclusion, the addition of dehydrated plasma in the initial diet of broiler chickens had positive effects on performance under challenging conditions; however, there was no significant economic return.