• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.101-108
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• 2002

An experiment was conducted to compare the influences of artificial zeolite(AZ) produced from fly ash and natural zeolite(NZ), those were supplemented into broiler diets, on performances, intestinal microbes and some blood chemistry for 5 wks. The experimental diets contained 21.5 and 19% CP fur starting and finishing period, respectively. The ME was 3,100 kcal/kg of feed in both starter and finisher diets. Three hundred twenty chicks were assigned to 5 treatments with 4 replicates and fed one of five experimental diets containing different levels of AZ or NZ ; 0% zeolite, 1.5% AZ, 3.0% AZ, 1.5% NZ, and 3.0% NZ. Weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion were measured with weekly basis. Blood cholesterol and intestinal microflora were analyzed at the end of the experiment. Weight gain of chicks fed with NZ tended to increase, but was not statistically different from other diet groups. However, the birds of fed with 3.0% AZ showed significant decrement of weight gain compared to that of control(P<0.05). No significant difference in feed intake was found among five treatment. Feed conversion was significantly improved in 3.0% NZ treatment relative to that of 3.0% AZ(P<0.05). There were no consistent differences in intestinal microbes between the control and zeolite groups. Blood cholesterol was significantly lower in 3.0% NZ treatments than the others(P<0.05). These results suggest that AZ can be added to broiler feeds less than 1.5% without any detrimental effects on chick performances.