Study of In Ovo Feeding as an Early Nutrition Method

The current study was conducted to investigate the potential effects of in ovofeeding on growth performance and intestinal morphology of broiler chickens. At 16 dof incubation، 400 fertile eggs were weighed and divided into 4 treatments with 4replicates per treatment and 25 eggs per replicate. On day 17. 5 of incubation، acarbohydrate solution (including 25 g of maltose/L، 25 g of sucrose/L، 200 g ofdextrin/L، and 5 g of NaCl/L) was injected into amniotic fluid of eggs in two oftreatments (1 ml/egg) and other two treatments were not injected but were subjectedto the same handling procedures as the injected treatments. Percentage hatchabilitywas calculated and body weights of hatched chicks were recorded after hatch and thenchicks were transferred to research farm. Two groups of injected and non-injectedchicks were held for 12 h without access to feed، whereas two others (injected andnon-injected groups) received feed upon arrival at the farm. At d 2 posthatch، jejunumsamples were taken for morphological examination. In ovo administration of carbohydrates increased hatching weights and chick: egg weight ratio (P <0. 01). In ovo injection of carbohydrates ameliorated adverse affects of delayed access to feed on breast meat (P<0. 05) and thigh yield (P<0. 01). Early access to feed significantly increased weight gain and feed intake during 1-21 days but not during 21-42 days. The in ovo feeding treatment had no significant effects on chick weight gain and feed intake during different periods (P >0. 05). Feed conversion ratio was not significantly affected by in ovo feeding or early feeding treatments (P>0. 05). In ovo feeding significantly enhanced villus height and surface area and intestinal maltase activity at d 2 posthatch (P<0. 05). Results of this study showed that in ovo administration of the carbohydrates could، to some extent compensate adverse effects of delayed access to feed، whereas in ovo feeding and short time delayed access to feed had no significant effects on subsequent performance of the chicks.