Evaluation of nutrient excretion and retention in broilers submitted to different nutritional strategies

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of different nutritional strategies on nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and calcium (Ca) balance and on copper (Cu), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) excretion in broilers during the periods of 1 to 21 days and 1 to 46 days of age. Four hundred male Cobb-500 broilers were used. A randomized block experimental design was applied, including five treatments with eight replicates of 10 birds each. A five-phase feeding program was adopted (1-8, 9-21, 22-33, 34-40 and 41-46 days of age). Treatments consisted of a control diet (C) with typical protein lev...