Broilers fed levels of copper above the nutritional requirement throughout their lifecycle grew more efficiently, reports a recently published study in Applied Poultry Research.
“Feeding copper above the requirement is pretty ubiquitous. From our internal numbers, 95% of broilers in the U.S. are fed copper above the requirement for growth purposes. However, only about 50% of all feed has high levels of copper in it. The birds are getting fed copper at some point in their lives, but nutritionists usually pull it after the first two feeds. We really wanted to quantify what sort of effect pulling copper early would have on production,” explained Kurt Perryman, Technical Sales Manager at Micronutrients and one of the authors of the study.
More about the research trial
The research, conducted at Auburn University, investigated the effects of feeding high copper in all production phases on growth performance.
“This was a four-feed program. The first two feeds were the same through 28 days, all containing the same level of high Cu. For the last two feeds, we varied the level of copper or removed it completely. We noticed that after that first feed without copper, there was a significant increase in feed conversion. In other words, feed conversion became much worse, especially for the birds that were fed copper for the first three diets and not the fourth,” said Perryman.
“We understand why people have not historically fed copper at a high level for prolonged periods. It’s the cost. But the benefits in efficiency far outweigh the costs.”
How it works
When fed at higher levels, copper can have bacteriostatic properties, meaning more nutrients can be used by the bird for growth.
“Copper caps the ability of the microbiome to grow. It creates an environment in the gastrointestinal tract where the bacteria really have a hard time thriving,”
The research group hopes to learn more about the biological mechanisms that explain why the nutrient promotes faster bird growth in future studies.
“When an animal gets fed high amounts of copper for the first 28 days and the next feed has just the nutritional levels of copper, that’s when we see that feed conversion becomes much worse. In the future, we hope to measure and quantify why this happens when the birds are transitioned from a high copper to a low copper feed,” Perryman said.
Like what you just read? Sign up now for free to receive the Poultry Future Newsletter.
