Abstract
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of chromium picolinate on growth performance, nutrient utilizability, carcass composition, serum traits and in vitro protein synthesis of 3 day old Arbor Acres broiler chickens when dietary crude protein levels were varying in diets. Six replicates of eight chicks each (average initial weitht = 59.4 g) were randomly assigned to three levels (low, medium, high) of dietary crude protein at two levels of chromium (0, 200 ppb Cr/kg diet) as chromium picolinate. Six chicks/treatment were randomly chosen for analyses of carcass composition, six additional chicks/treatment were randomly chosen for analyses of serum components, and a chick/treatment was chosen for in vitro culture of liver tissue. Chromium picolinate did not affect feed intake, protein and fat utilizability, regradless of dietary crude protein level. But feed/gain ratio were more improved in groups fed the low protein diets added with chromium picolinate compared with groups fed the medium and high protein diets with chromium picolinate. Carcass fat tended to decrease whereas carcass protein tended to increase when added with chromium picolinate. Broilers fed diets with chromium picolinate exhibited lower serum triglyceride and nonesterified fatty acid concentrations than those fed without chromium picolinate (p < 0.05). Both secreted and retained proteins in cultured acinar cell were higher in groups fed diets with chromium picolinate than those fed diets without chromium picolinate (p < 0.05). It could be suggested that chromium picolinate was effective in improving weight gain and nutrient utilizability when dietary crude protein was low (p < 0.05), and also effective in manipulating carcass fat when dietary crude protein level was high (p < 0.05).