Effects of digestible protein and electrolyte balance level in finisher diet on performance, intestine morphology and blood parameters of broiler chickens under heat stress

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of varying levels of digestible protein (DP) and dietary electrolyte balances (DEB) during the finisher period on performance, blood parameters and small intestine histology of broiler chickens exposed to heat stress. A total of 500 mixed sex chickens (Ross 308) were used in a completely randomized design as a 2×5 factorial arrangement with two levels of DP (%16.5 and %19) and five levels of DEB (150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 meq/kg of diet)with five replicates of 10 birds each during the finisher period. The chicks were exposed to heat stress of 32±2 °C for eight hours/day during 28-42 days of age. Increasing DP levels did not have a significant effect on weight gain under heat stress during the finisher period. Feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of chickens fed 16.5% DP diet was significantly more than 19% DP fed birds (P0.05) on small intestine morphology. Diet containing 250 mEq/kg of diet EBD significantly (P