Effect of dietary nano zinc oxide supplementation on performance and zinc bioavailability in broilers

The present work was planned to investigate the effect of zinc oxide nano particles on performance traits in broiler chickens. Three hundred straight run ‘Vencobb 400’ day-old broiler chicks were equally and randomly distributed into five treatment groups which subdivided into three replicates containing 20 chicks in each, reared on deep litter system in pens up to 6 weeks of age. The dietary treatment groups were control group offered basal feed (BIS, 2007) without nano zinc (A), and treatment groups B, C, D and E received nano zinc oxide @ 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively. Nano zinc oxide fed groups had significantly higher (P<0.01) live body weight and weekly body weight gain in 1^st week as compared with control group. Cumulative feed consumption in group B (replacement level of zinc by nano zinc @ 25%) showed numerically higher feed consumption as compared to other treatment groups in all weeks and lowest cumulative feed consumption observed in treatment group E (100% replacement level by nano zinc). The cumulative weekly feed conversion ratio did not differ significantly among different treatment groups. It was observed that the total percent mortality in treatment group A-6.66%, B-1.66%, C-3.33%, for treatment group D and E were 0%. The bioavailability of zinc significantly increased at (P<0.01) in the diets having nano zinc oxide compared to control. The results of the present study suggested that the dietary inclusion of nano zinc in broiler diets replacing inorganic zinc was found to improve growth performance during pre-starter phase along with zinc bioavailability and resulted in reduced mortality in broiler chickens.