DOI: 10.1590/1089-6891v16i127404

PRODUÇÃO ANIMAL

REPLACEMENT OF CHOLINE CHLORIDE BY A VEGETAL SOURCE OF CHOLINE IN DIETS FOR BROILERS

SUBSTITUIÇÃO DO CLORETO DE COLINA POR UMA FONTE DE COLINA VEGETAL EM DIETAS PARA FRANGOS DE CORTE

Arele Arlindo Calderano¹

Ricardo Vianna Nunes²

Ramalho José Barbosa Rodrigueiro³

Ricardo Andrade César⁴

1Professor Doutor, Instituto Federal Fluminense, Campos de Goytacazes, RJ, Brasil - arelecalderano@yahoo.com.br

2Professor Doutor da Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná, Marechal Candido Rondon, PR, Brasil

3Zootecnista, Doutor, Evonik Degussa Brasil, São Paulo, SP, Brasil

4Médico Veterinário, Technofeed, Vinhedo, SP, Brasil

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of a vegetal source of choline as a replacement of choline chloride in the diet for broilers from one to 21 and 22 to 42 days of age. In the first experiment, we used 1500 Cobb male broilers at one day of age, distributed in a completely randomized design with ten treatments, five repetitions and 30 birds per experimental unit. In the second experiment, we used 1000 Cobb male broiler at 22 days of age, distributed in a completely randomized design with ten treatments, five repetitions and 20 birds per experimental unit. The treatments consisted of five levels of choline chloride 60% (400, 500, 600, 700 and 800 mg kg^-1) and five levels of vegetal source of choline (100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 mg kg^-1). There was no difference between the performance parameters of broilers in the periods of one to 21 and 22 to 42 days of age. The use of up to 100 mg kg^-1 of a vegetal source of choline can replace the use of choline chloride, in the studied levels, in corn-soybean meal diets for broilers from one to 21 and 22 to 42 days of age.

Keywords: nutritional requirement; performance; poultry; vitamin

Resumo:

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o uso de uma fonte de colina vegetal em substituição ao cloreto de colina em dietas para frangos de corte de um a 21 e 22 a 42 dias de idade. No primeiro experimento foram usados 1500 frangos de corte machos Cobb com um dia de idade, distribuídos em um delineamento inteiramente ao acaso com dez tratamentos, cinco repetições e 30 aves por unidade experimental. No segundo experimento foram usados 1000 frangos de corte machos Cobb com 22 dias de idade distribuídos em um delineamento inteiramente ao acaso com dez tratamentos, cinco repetições e 20 aves por unidade experimental. Os tratamentos consistiram em cinco níveis de cloreto de colina 60% (400, 500, 600, 700 e 800 mg/kg) e cinco da fonte de colina vegetal (100, 150, 200, 250 e 300 mg/kg). Não houve diferença entre as médias dos parâmetros produtivos nas duas fases experimentais. O uso de até 100 mg/kg de uma fonte vegetal de colina pode substituir o uso de cloreto de colina, nos níveis estudados, em dietas a base de milho e farelo de soja para frangos de um a 21 e 22 a 42 dias de idade.

Palavras-chave: Aves; desempenho; exigência nutricional; vitamina

Recebido em: 20 nov. 2013.  

Aceito em: 23 out. 2014

Introduction

Choline is an essential nutrient for poultry. In the metabolism, it participates in the acetylcholine formation, an important neurotransmitter. Choline is also part of structure of the phosphatidylcholine, being the predominant form present in the body. Phosphatidylcholine is an essential phospholipid and is made in all nucleated cells via the choline pathway. It is involved in the absorption and transport of fats to the liver and subsequent mobilization and transport of liver fat. In addition, it is a part of the composition of cellular membranes and organelles, such as mitochondria and microsomes. Choline also acts as a methyl group donor, after oxidized to betaine. Betaine can be used to convert homocysteine to methionine in the transmethylation pathway in the liver.

Methylation of phosphatidylethanolamine, the first step in endogenous choline biosynthesis, allows S-adenosyl-methionine to donate a methyl group and therefore spare choline in mammalian species⁽¹⁾. In contrast, avian species have limited capacity to carry out this initial biosynthetic step⁽²⁾. Thus, especially young chicks have a high dietary requirement of choline⁽³⁾. Emmert and Baker⁽⁴⁾, using a choline-deficient basal diet, showed an almost linear response to incremental addition of choline chloride up to 1115 mg.kg^-1 of feed in chicks from 10 to 22 days of age.

Choline is usually added to animal diets in the choline chloride form. However, this source has some disadvantages such as high hygroscopicity, the acceleration of oxidative loss of vitamins in the diet, and the formation of trimethylamine in the gastrointestinal tract of the birds⁽⁵⁾. Trimethylamine is a short-chain aliphatic amine that is formed from dietary choline in a reaction catalyzed by enzymes within gut bacteria⁽⁶⁾. This metabolite is found in high concentrations in fish, and is responsible for the characteristic odor of seafood⁽⁷⁾.

However, choline is also present in plants in the phosphatidylcholine form, free choline and sphingomyelin. Currently there are natural products, produced from selected plants, with high content of choline in esterified form and with high bioavailability, which may be an important alternative to the use of synthetic choline chloride. Many researches have shown that these products can replace choline chloride in diets for poultry^(8-11).

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of a vegetal source of choline to replace choline chloride in diet for broilers from one to 21 and from 22 to 42 days of age.

Material and Methods

The experiments were carried from November to December 2008 at Fazenda Experimental Antônio Carlos dos Santos Pessoa, located on Linha Guará in Marechal Candido Rondon - PR, belonging to the Universidade Federal do Oeste do Paraná (UNIOESTE).

In the first experiment, we used 1500 Cobb male broilers at one day of age distributed in a completely randomized design with ten treatments, five replications and 30 birds per experimental unit. In the second experiment, we used 1000 Cobb male broilers at 22 days of age distributed in a completely randomized design with ten treatments, five replications and 20 birds per experimental unit. For the formation of the experimental units, birds were weighed individually and grouped by weight range so that all the plots presented similar average weight. The broilers were housed in a shed consisting of 50 experimental boxes with 1.30 x 1.35 m, totaling an area of 1,755 m². The management of drinkers, troughs, curtains and birds followed the recommendations of the strain manual, with water and diet supplied ad libitum throughout the experimental periods. The birds used in the second experiment were fed starter feed until 21 days of age according to the recommendations by Rostagno et al.⁽¹²⁾.

The continuous lighting program (24 hours of natural light + artificial light) was adopted during all the period. The birds were warmed individually on each experimental unit, using infrared lamp (250 watts).

The broilers received the experimental diets (Table 1) in the period of 1 to 21 and 22 to 42 days of age. The diets were isonutrient and isocaloric in accordance with the requirements proposed by Rostagno et al. ⁽¹²⁾.

The inclusion of choline chloride 60% and the vegetal source of choline (Biocholine^®) were performed during the whole experimental periods (1 to 21 and 22 to 42 days of age) replacing the inert material (Table 2).

The parameters evaluated at 21 and 42 days of age were final weight, weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion and viability. For statistical analyses, we adopted the SNK test at 5% probability for mean comparison. For the study we used the program SAEG (System for Statistical and Genetic Analyses).

Results and Discussion

At one to 21 days of age, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) of the performance parameters among the different levels of choline chloride and vegetal source of choline in diets (Table 3). Therefore, either the supplementation level of 400 mg of choline chloride or of 100 mg of vegetal source of choline were enough to keep broiler’s performance. Waldroup & Fritts⁽¹³⁾ studied the supplementation of corn-soybean meal based diets with 1000 mg.kg^-1 of choline from choline chloride and also did not observe influence on weight gain and feed conversion of broilers up to 35 days of age. However, literature data are controversial regarding the effect of choline chloride on birds’ performance in general. Pompeu et al.⁽¹⁴⁾ evaluated the supplementation levels of 100, 200, 300 and 400 mg of choline.kg^-1 of feed for broilers at 1 to 21 days of age and observed that feed conversion was influenced linearly, concluding that 400 mg of choline was the best level for this parameter.

In this experiment, as expected, broilers fed both vegetal source of choline and choline chloride presented similar performance. This result was similar to those findings by Chatterjee & Misra⁽⁸⁾ and Muthukumarasamy el al.⁽⁹⁾ that weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion and viability of broiler chickens were similar when replacing the choline chloride by a vegetal source of choline in the diets.

In the second experiment, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) of the performance parameters among the different levels of choline chloride and vegetal source of choline in diets (Table 4). Therefore, either the supplementation level of 400 mg of choline chloride or of 100 mg of vegetal source of choline were enough to keep broiler’s performance. Contrary to this result for choline chloride levels, Emmert and Baker⁽⁴⁾, using a choline-deficient basal diet, showed an almost linear response to incremental addition of choline chloride up to 1,115 mg.kg^-1 of feed for broilers from 10 to 22 days of age. Increasing choline chloride to 2000 mg.kg^-1 of feed resulted in further weight gain improvements, but to a lesser extent. This study is particularly interesting because the diet was treated to ensure inhibition of de novo choline synthesis.

In the second experiment, as expected, broilers fed both vegetal source of choline and choline chloride presented similar performance. This result was similar to those verified by Kumar⁽¹⁵⁾ that the performance of broiler chickens was similar when replacing the choline chloride by a vegetal source of choline in the diets. In another study, Yu⁽¹⁶⁾ observed that the vegetal source of choline can replace the choline chloride in the diets besides producing an improvement in weight gain and feed conversion of birds. Devegowda et al.⁽¹⁷⁾ also observed that broilers supplemented with vegetal source of choline in the feed showed a reduction of fat in the abdomen and liver.

An explanation for the variable effects of the choline levels in the literature can be the methionine level in the experimental diets. Castro et al.⁽¹⁸⁾ observed significant interaction for egg production and egg mass of Japanese quail with linear effect in response to choline levels when the methionine level was 0.65%. However, when the methionine level was 0.75%, there was no response to choline levels. Similarly, Reis et al.⁽¹⁹⁾ concluded that there is no need for adding choline to the diet of Japanese quails when these are fed diets containing methionine and cystine at more than 0,91%. This effect can be explained by the endogenous synthesis of choline in the liver by donating methyl groups by methionine.

The present study showed that, regardless of the level of choline chloride and vegetal source of choline used in the diets, the response in broiler performance was the same. This confirms previous observations that the vegetal source of choline, produced from selected plants with high content of choline in esterified form and high bioavailability, may be an important alternative for synthetic choline chloride in corn-soybean meal diets for broilers from one to 21 and 22 to 42 days of age.

Conclusions

The use of up to 100 mg.kg^-1 of a vegetal source of choline can replace the use of choline chloride in corn-soybean meal diets for broilers from one to 21 and 22 to 42 days of age.

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