Immunological responses as affected by dietary protein and arginine concentrations in starting broiler chicks.

The study presented here aimed to investigate the effect of dietary protein content on Arg needs and immunological responses of broiler chicks during the starter period. A total of 715 one-day-old male Ross broiler chicks were randomly assigned to 5 replicate pens for each of 11 experimental diets during a 21-d feeding trial. The dietary treatments included a corn-soybean meal control diet or experimental diets (corn-soybean meal-corn gluten meal) containing 5 dietary Arg levels of 80, 90, 100, 110, or 120% of NRC recommendations and 2 dietary protein levels of 19 and 22.35% of diet. Increasing dietary CP content significantly (P<0.001) increased daily feed consumption and weight gain. Also, feeding diets deficient in Arg to the chicks led to a noticeable decline in feed intake, and dietary Arg supplementation overcame decreased feed consumption and weight gain observed in Arg-deficient chicks. Feed efficiency was affected only by dietary Arg concentration so that chicks on Arg-deficient diets markedly (P<0.001) increased feed conversion ratio. Contrast comparisons showed that the highly variable responses of chicks to dietary Arg level were mainly attributed to dietary protein concentration: more dietary protein content and higher Arg demands. Among lymphoid organs, thymus (P<0.001) and spleen (P<0.05) were affected by dietary Arg deficiency, whereas diets low in CP content decreased (P<0.001) relative weights of thymus and bursa of Fabricius. Increase in dietary CP level from 19 to 22.35% caused an increase (P<0.001) in the proportion of lymphocytes and consequently lower (P<0.05) heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. Broiler chicks on Arg-deficient diets decreased the proportion of heterophils in peripheral blood. Furthermore, skin reaction to phytohemagglutinin P was impaired when the diets were low in CP and Arg contents. Similarly, a decrease in dietary CP and Arg levels diminished the antibody production response to Newcastle disease virus. The broken-line analysis indicate that the Arg requirements of starting broiler chicks for optimal immune functions (107% of NRC values) are higher than those for maximum growth performance (101%) or feed efficiency (103%) and are dependent on dietary protein concentration.