engleski

Effects of cimetidine on broiler fattening and on stress-induced gizzard erosion in chicken

The work describes the effects of cimetidine on stress-induced gizzard erosions (Experiment A) and the influence of the long-term application (42 days) of the same drug on weight gain and feed consumption during broiler fattening (Experiment B). For experiment A, 60 male, three-day-old chicks were divided into two groups: C(n=30)-control chicks treated with 0, 5 ml saline ; CIM(n=30)- chicks treated with cimetidine in a dose of 5 mg/kg body weight (b.w.) intragastricaly. All chicks were stressed using a modified water-immersion stress method according to which the chicks, after 24 h of feed deprivation, were immersed in tap water (17 oC) for a few seconds. Under chloroform anaesthesia ten chicks from each group were killed 1, 2 and 3 h after the stressing. The morphometric analysis of gizzard erosion (GE) and histopathological examinations of gizzards were performed for each chick. In Experiment B, 32-day-old broilers of both sexes were used. The control group was untreated (n=16) while the CIM group (n=16) was fed the same diet supplemented with 10 mg of cimetidine per kg of feed throughout the fattening period (42 days). The results of Experiment A showed decreased mean lenght of the GE in the cimetidine-threated birds as compared with the GE lesions of the controls. In Experiment B, the treated chicks had reduced liveweight (1835, 1 g), carcass weight (1474, 6 g) and increased feed consumption (2115 g of feed per kilogram of weight gain) compared to the controls in which the same parameters were 1898, 5 g, 1574, 2 g and 1797 g, respectively. The results show that stress-induced GE of chicks can be medicated pharmacologically, long-term application of the same substance impairs the results of fattening.

Cimetidine; stress; broiler chickens; fattening

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