Digestibility of nutrients by young geese for use of lithium in the composition of fodder

Abstract

In recent years, applied research has been carried out to determine the physiological needs of poultry in mineral elements, which were not previously taken into account in rations, but, as has been proven, have a positive influence on their organism. One of these bioelements is lithium. Numerous experimental studies conducted on different types of animals and poultry, allowed to identify sufficiently broad and diverse biological properties of lithium salts. The discovery of the biological properties of lithium became the basis for its use in the poultry industry. Already the first attempts to use lithium in zootechnical practice allowed to get results, which prove the need to develop differentiated norms of introducing it into the feed for poultry of different species, age and direction of productivity. One of the evaluation criteria, in determining the physiological need of poultry in lithium, is the level of digestibility of feed nutrients in the organism. In the physiological experiment on goslings of the Legart breed, the effect of the addition of different doses of lithium in compound feeds on the degree of digestibility of nutrients in their bodies was studied. It was established that all doses of lithium entering into the combined feed, which were tested, generally had a positive effect on the digestive processes in the body of goslings, but their effectiveness was different. According to the degree of digestibility of nutrients of the feed, they differed favorably from poultry of other groups, the goslings of the fourth experimental group were fed with lithium-enriched feed at the rate of 0.15 mg/kg. In poultry of this group, the digestibility of organic matter was 1.4% (P<0.05); crude protein-by 1.5 (P<0.01); crude fat-by 0.8; crude fiber-by 2.3 and nitrogen-free extractives-by 1.0% (Р<0.05) higher than that of the goslings of the control group.