Live performance and processing yields of broilers fed diets with tiamulin and salinomycin combinations

Abstract

A study was conducted with the objective of evaluating the combined application of tiamulin (TIA) and salinomycin (SAL) in broiler diets fed from 1 to 42 d of age. One thousand and two hundred Cobb x Cobb 500 male broilers were housed in 48 floor pens and fed corn-soybean meal diets containing 66 ppm of SAL combined or not with TIA at 30 or 20 and 20 or 15 ppm, respectively, in the starter (1-21 d) and grower feeds (22-42 d); however, TIA was withdrawn from the feeds 7 days before slaughter. The experimental design was completely randomized with 3 treatments and 16 replicates of 25 birds each. Broilers were weekly evaluated for live performance whereas carcass yield, abdominal fat and commercial cuts were assessed at 42 d using 6 birds randomly taken from each pen. Results obtained at the end of the study demonstrated that body weight gain was not affected (P > 0.05) by the treatments, whereas feed intake was reduced (P < 0.05) and feed conversion was improved (P < 0.05) for birds on diets containing TIA at 30/20 and 20/15 ppm, respectively. Carcass yield, abdominal fat, and commercial parts were not affected (P > 0.05) by the treatments. Live performance and post-slaughter yields data obtained in this study did not indicate that combinations of TIA with SAL could be detrimental. In fact, an improvement in feed conversion was observed at the lowest dose of TIA.