Small Intestine Morphology, Growth Performance and Nutrient Digestibility of Young Broilers Affected by Different Levels of Dietary Putrescine

This experiment was conducted to investigate dietary putrescine effects on broiler performance. Treatments were 6 levels of putrescine (0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04 & 0.05 %) added to a basal diet and fed to 4-32 day old broilers. The weekly growth performance was recorded, and ileal digesta and small intestine samples were collected at the end of the 2nd and 3rd week of age. At 21 d, body weight and feed intake were increased with 0.03 and 0.01% dietary putrescine supplementation respectively, while feed conversion ratio was not affected. At younger age (14 d), decreasing effects of putrescence on BW and energyprotein digestibility were seen. Meantime, protein digestibility decreased at 0.04% putrescence at 14 days old chicks while at older age this effect was not seen, suggesting an interaction between the age and dietary putrescence effect. Duodenal villus height and crypt depth were increased significantly due to putrescine at both ages (14 and 21 days) as compared to control group. In conclusion, dietary putrescine may have an accelerating effect on the growth rate of birds since whilst body weight and feed intake improved feed conversion ratio remained unaffected. Dietary putrescine is positively effective on small intestine villus height and crypt depth, particularly at younger ages.