Effects of calcium pidolate on performance, carcass traits, bone biomechanical properties and mineralisation and jejunum histomorphology in broilers

1. The current study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary calcium pidolate (CalP) on performance, slaughtering characteristics, bone biomechanical properties, mineralisation and jejunum histomorphology in male broilers. A total of 200 one-day-old Ross 308 male chicks were randomly assigned to one of four treatments as five pen replicates, each containing 10 chicks. The basal diet without CalP was formulated to supply the nutritional needs of broilers and the treatment diets contained 0.30, 0.45 and 0.60 g/kg CalP, with limestone meeting the remaining calcium requirement.2. The addition of CalP had a quadratic effect on performance (P < 0.05) and the best performance was achieved in the group that included CalP at a dose of 0.45 g/kg but 0.60 g/kg level worsened performance. Supplementing with CalP linearly decreased carcass yield (P < 0.01) and relative breast weight (P ≤ 0.05) but the relative thigh weight increased quadratically (P < 0.05) and reached a maximum at 0.45 g/kg.3. Tibia shear force and stress linearly increased with the use of CalP in the diet (P < 0.05). Supplementation had a quadratic effect on tibial calcium (P < 0.01), reaching a maximum at 0.30 g/kg, although tibial phosphorus levels decreased linearly (P < 0.01).4. The effect of CalP on jejunum histomorphology fluctuated and, compared to the unsupplemented control group, the villus height/crypt depth ratio increased, while the other variables decreased (P < 0.05). Decrease in crypt depth with the addition of CalP was significant (P < 0.05).5. Using Ca-pidolate at a rate of 0.45 g/kg in broiler diets is sufficient to increase performance and tibia strength but 0.60 g/kg level negatively affected performance. In addition, the results of jejunum histomorphology were variable, but the crypt depth decreased with CalP levels and this is an important effect. However, further research is needed to detail the effect of CalP on broilers.