Investigation of different levels of cholecalciferol and its metabolite in calcium and phosphorus deficient diets on growth performance, tibia bone ash and development of tibial dyschondroplasia in broilers

ABSTRACT. This experiment was conducted to examine the effects of 1-α(OH)D3 alone or in combination with different levels of cholecalciferol on performance, and tibia parameters of one-d-old male broilers fed a tibial dyschondroplasia (TD)-inducing diet. A total of three hundred male broilers were randomly allocated to 5 treatment groups with 4 replicates. The dietary treatments consisted of TD inducing diet, TD inducing diet supplemented with 5 μg per kg of 1-α(OH)D3; TD inducing diet supplemented with 5 μg per kg of 1-α(OH)D3 and 1,500; 3,000 or 5,000 IU cholecalciferol kg-1 of diet. At 42 d of age, broiler chickens fed diets containing 1-α(OH)D3 and 1,500 IU cholecalciferol kg-1 of diet had higher body weight (p