The Effect of Using Different Levels of Irradiated Shrimp Waste on Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Blood Parameters, Liver enzymes and Nutrient Digestibility in Broiler Chickens

     This research was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding processed shrimp waste products with gamma radiation on performance, carcass characteristics, blood parameters, liver enzymes and digestibility of broiler chicks. In this experiment, 560 one-day male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were allocated to 7 treatments, 5 replicates and 16 chicks per replicate in a completely randomized design. The treatments consisted of the basal diet (corn-soybean meal) and diets containing 5% unprocessed shrimp waste, 5% radiation processed shrimp, 10% unprocessed shrimp waste, 10% radiation processed shrimp, 15% unprocessed shrimp waste, and 15% of radiation processed shrimp waste. The results showed that in the starter, grower, finisher and whole growth period, chicks fed 15% of unprocessed shrimp waste had the lowest feed intake (P <0.05). Among treatments, the least weight gain was observed for treatments containing 15% unprocessed shrimp waste (P <0.05). In the grower, finisher and whole periods, the control and 5% radiation processed shrimp wastes showed the lowest feed conversion ratio (P <0.05). The percentage of thigh, breast and heart was higher in radiation treated treatments (P <0.05). In those treatments that containing 15% unprocessed shrimp waste, the abdominal fat pad percentage decreased. The effect of experimental treatments on the levels of serum triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL, HDL, AST and ALT concentrations at 21 days of age was not significantly different in broiler chicks (P>0.05). Increasing the level of shrimp wastes caused significantly reduced of LDL serum at 42 days of age (P <0.05). At 42 days of age, the highest levels of HDL serum was observed in the treatments containing 5% shrimp waste and control group (P <0.05). In the treatments containing 5% radiation processed shrimp waste, the digestibility of nutrients was similar to the control group (P <0.05). The results of this experiment showed that the use of radiation processed shrimp waste at 5% level was not a negative effect on the feed conversion ratio, weight gain and final weight of the birds, but also improved broiler chicken performance with increasing digestibility of the nutrients.