The effects of wheat grain type (whole and ground) pre- and post-pellet on performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility and blood immunity and metabolites in broiler chickens received acidified drinking water

Using organic acids in drinking water and whole grain feeding are effective strategies in broiler nutrition. Therefore, A 2 × 3 factorial arrangement of treatments was used to study the effects of acidified drinking water (ADW) as 0 or 350 mL acidifier/1,000 L with three different wheat forms, including ground wheat (GW), whole wheat (WW), or pelleted whole wheat (PWW) on growth performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility and blood parameters of broiler chickens fed pelleted corn-soybean meal-based diets. Three hundred male broiler chickens at 1-d-old were randomly distributed into six treatments of five replicate pens each. WW improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) during all experimental phases (P < 0.05). The coefficients of ileal protein digestibility in chickens receiving acidified water and diets containing whole wheat grain after pelleting increased significantly (P < 0.05). They used whole wheat grain before the pellet decreased blood triglycerides (P < 0.05). Based on the results of this research, it can be concluded that using acidic water and whole wheat grain after pelleting increased growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and some carcass characteristics in broiler chickens.