Seven experiments were carried out to investigate the involvement of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism on the incidence of Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) in broiler chickens. Hepatic arachidonate level decreased after 1 h postmortem. The decreased level of hepatic arachidonate previously observed in SDS birds was, therefore, associated with the post-mortem aging. Broiler chickens fed diets high in glucose monohydrate (cerelose) were more susceptible to SDS mortality than broilers fed diets high in corn starch or corn-soy. Feeding broilers a high cerelose diet increased the levels of plasma calcium, total protein, triacylglycerol, and uric acid compared to broilers fed corn starch diet. Broilers fed cerelose diet also showed the higher incidence of leg abnormality than broilers fed corn starch or corn-soy diets. Daily intraperitoneal injection with 0.25 ml of L(+) lactic acid solution (100 mg lactic acid/ml) to broilers over a 7-d period failed to reproduce the SDS incidence, whereas intravenous injection of 40% lactic acid solution (200 mg lactic acid/kg body weight) resulted in 100% incidence of SDS-type mortality. No SDS-type mortality was observed with the intravenous injection of 40% sodium lactate solution (200 mg sodium lactate/kg body weight). Disturbance of physiological acid-base balance might be a factor in the SDS-type mortality. Suboptimal thiamin level in broilers fed cerelose diets was observed. Thiamin supplementation to cerelose diet improved the thiamin status of the broilers. Mortality due to SDS was decreased when thiamin hydrochloride was supplemented to cerelose diet at the level of 0.6 and 2.8 mg thiamin hydrochloride/kg diet, respectively. Thiamin supplementation, however, did not change the liver pyruvate dehydrogenase activity and the proportion of pyruvate dehydrogenase in the active form. Disturbance of acid-base balance was postulated to be associated with the incidence of SDS. Other genetic, nutritional, and environmental factors are likely to modify the incidence by affecting the acid-base status of the chicken. / Graduation date: 1993

Most of the feed required for poultry production in the Republic of Yemen is imported from Europe. Sometimes, feed shipments arrive later due to lack of hard currencies to pay for the feed or to pay the freight charges. Yemeni broiler producers in such cases feed their birds a single feed ingredient or a mixture of ingredients until feed arrives. Five experiments were conducted to simulate feed shortage situations. As a single ingredient, barley is the grain of choice in case of feed shortages. When broilers were switched to corn-soy after the single ingredient diets, the compensatory growth was correlated with the severity of reduced growth. Feeding diets with a mixture of faba beans + sorghum grain with or without 7% herring meal for 21 and 49 days, respectively, reduced significantly (P<.05) mean body weight, total feed consumed, feed efficiency and apparent protein efficiency ratio. Feeding wheat bran at 10-15% with adjustment for protein and energy from day-old to 49 days of age resulted in significantly (P<.05) improved mean body weights compared to the control broilers. Increasing wheat bran levels further gradually reduced body weight and feed consumption. Abdominal fat increased significantly (P<.05) when wheat bran inclusion exceeded 20 percent. Cellulase supplementation did not show any significant interaction with wheat bran in all the measured parameters. Supplementing protease to wheat bran diets significantly (P<.05) reduced mean body weight, feed consumption and the feed conversion in broilers. These dramatic effects were proportionally ameliorated by increasing the levels of wheat bran. / Graduation date: 1991

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