Nasroallah Moradi Kor, Ramin Farhadi and Pari Rousta
The objectives of this experiment were to investigate effects of different levels B-adrenergic agonist (Ractopamine) on performance and some blood parameters in broiler chickens. For this experiment 240 Ross 308 broiler chicks were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments (CRD; 4 treatments with 4 replicate (15 chicks in each replicate). From days 21 to 42 of the rearing period, ractopamine was fed (mixed in grower diet) daily at the rate of 0, 5, 7.5 and 12 mg per kg of the predicted dietary intake. In this experiment chickens performance including feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were measured. At the end of experiment blood samples were taken via wing vein from one randomly-selected chicken per each replicate and sera stored at -20°C until analysis for glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), insulin and uric acid. The general linear model procedure of SAS software was used for data analysis and differences among treatment means determined using the Duncan’s multiple-range test. The results showed that the inclusion of ractopamine had a significant effect on performance of broiler chickens (P<0.05). Adding ractopamine to the diet significantly increased serum glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations (P<0.05). From the results of the present experiment it could be concluded that utilisation of ractopamine in diets was effective for improving the performance of broiler chickens.
