Tackling the future challenges of Organic Animal Husbandry - vTI

RAHMANN G & GODINHO D (Ed.) (2012): Tackling the Future Challenges of Organic Animal Husbandry.
Proceedings of the 2 nd OAHC, Hamburg/Trenthorst, Germany, Sep 12-14, 2012
Table 1. Description of treatments, supplementation strategy and dosing period.
Group Treatment Route of delivery Supply Period* Dosing period age in days
Vac Vaccination 1 Drinking water Before 3-8
Aad1 A. annua dried leaves 3% of diet Before 1-56
Aad30 A. annua dried leaves 3% of diet Before 30-56
Ca8d M. esculenta dried leaves 3% of diet Before 1-8
EAv1 A. vulgaris ethanolic extract Drinking water Before 48-58
EAv2 A. vulgaris ethanolic extract 2 Drinking water After 63-70
EAa1 A. annua ethanolic extract Drinking water After 65-72
1 Livacox® Q (Merial Animal Health Ltd. Brazil) - positive control; 2 farmer’s routine.*before or after the appearance
of blood on faeces and sadness of young pullets based on the farmer routine.
To monitor effect of treatments on infections, pooled fecal samples from each pen were weekly
analyzed (OPG estimation) from week 1 to 14 following Roepstorff and Nansen (1997). Consumption
of diet was recorded for each pen every week and feed intake was estimated for individual pullets
per pen. Every week (from 0 to 14), 10% of the pullets/pen were randomly selected and
weighed. Due to changes in farm management in the end of week 7, i.e. diet was changed and pullets
were able to access the outdoor runs, performance attributes were registered for the initial period
(week 0 to 7) and for the complete period (week 0 to 14) in which the infection dynamic was
monitored. For statistical analyses, the parameters of each treatment were presented as the mean of
the two replicated pens. When necessary, data was logarithmical transformed. Analysis of variance
was performed using one-way ANOVA in SAS. P-values less than or equal to 0.05 were considered
statically significant.
Results
Pullets fed dried leaves of A. annua during the first 8 weeks showed lower body weight gain when
compared to all other treatment combinations, which in turn did not differ in growth rate. This lower
body weight gain was maintained during the entire 14-week period. The feed intake for this
treatment was numerical lower in the first 7 weeks and feed conversion rate was significantly impaired
compared with all other treatments. No variation was observed for performance among the
other treatments.
Table 2. Effect of treatments on performance attributes and oocyst output
Treatment
Attribute Vac Aad1 Aad30 Ca8d EAv1 EAv2 EAa1
BWG 1 (0-7 weeks) 0.45 0.33 0.40 0.43 0.46 0.45 0.43 *
FI 2 (0-7 weeks) 1.4 1.2 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.5
FCR 3 (0-7 weeks) 3.2 3.9 3.5 3.3 3.1 3.0 3.4 *
BWG (0-14 weeks) 1.15 0.99 1.06 1.05 1.08 1.12 1.06
FI (0-14 weeks) 5.9 6.3 5.9 5.8 5.7 5.5 6.0
FCR (0-14 weeks) 5.1 6.3 5.5 5.6 5.3 4.9 5.8 **
k OPG 4 (0-7 weeks) 179 227 239 63 164 135 208 *
k OPG (0-14 weeks) 57 32 48 40 13 39 25
* significant at P