Influence of dietary guanidinoacetic acid on nutrient retention, carcass traits and breast muscle creatine in broilers fed animal protein diets

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) supplementation at the rate of 600 g/tonne on nutrient retention, carcass characteristics, serum biochemical profile, and breast muscle creatine in commercial broiler chickens fed meat and bone meal (MBM) based diets. A total of 96 day-old Vencobb 430Y chicks were randomly assigned into three treatments with four replicates of eight birds each: Control T1 (Corn-Soya MBM diet); T2 (Corn-Soya MBM diet + GAA), and T3 (Corn-Soya MBM diet with 50 kcal/kg reduced ME + GAA). At the end of 42 days, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen and calcium balance remained statistically comparable among treatments (p>0.05), whereas phosphorus excretion increased in reduced metabolizable energy (ME) with GAA (T3) fed broilers (p