The effect of the chelated form of trace elements in diet on weight gain, production traits, egg specific gravity, immune system, blood parameters, liver enzymes, and progesterone hormone in Ross 308 broiler breeder chickens

Figures & data

Table 1. Supplemented amounts of trace minerals in experimental treatments (mg/kg).

Trace Mineral Type	Source	Treatment
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
		NC	PC	50:50	Zn	Cu	Fe	Mn	Se
Zn^1	Chelated^6	0	110	55	110	0	0	0	0
	Non-Chelated^7	110	0	55	0	110	110	110	110
Cu^2	Chelated	0	10	5	0	10	0	0	0
	Non-Chelated	10	0	5	10	0	10	10	10
Fe^3	Chelated	0	50	25	0	0	50	0	0
	Non-Chelated	50	0	25	50	50	0	50	50
Mn^4	Chelated	0	120	60	0	0	0	120	0
	Non-Chelated	120	0	60	120	120	120	0	120
Se^5	Chelated	0	0.30	0.15	0	0	0	0	0.30
	Non-Chelated	0.30	0	0.15	0.30	0.30	0.30	0.30	0

NC: Negative control; PC: Positive Control.

¹Zn: Zinc; ²Cu: Copper; ³Fe: Ferrous; ⁴Mn: Manganese; ⁵Se: Selenium.

⁶Organic: supplemented as chelated source of Mineral-Methionine (Zinpro, USA); ⁷Inorganic: supplemented as sulphate (SO₄) source for Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn and Na₂SeO₃ and Ca(IO₃)₂ for Se and Iodate, respectively (Givan Chemi, Tehran, Iran).

Treatment 1 (Negative control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as non-chelated form; Treatment 2 (Positive control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as chelated form; Treatment 3: Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as 50% chelated form and 50% non-chelated form; Treatment 4: Zn provided as chelated form; Treatment 5: Cu provided as chelated form; Treatment 6: Fe provided as chelated form; Treatment 7: Mn provided as chelated form; Treatment 8: Se provided as chelated form.

Table 2. Ingredients and chemical composition of experimental diet (negative control) for broiler breeder chickens.

Ingredients	Amount (%)
Corn	71.0
Wheat Bran	2.00
Soybean Meal	15.40
Calcium Carbonate	7.11
Oyster Shell	1.30
mono Phosphate	0.83
Mineral Supplement^1	0.50
Vitamin Supplement^2	0.25
Common salt	0.20
Na-Bicarbonate	0.16
DL-Methionine	0.13
L-Theronine	0.02
Choline Chloride	0.80
Termin-8^3	0.10
Escent S^4	0.10
C4^5	0.10
Total	100
Analysed feed composition
Apparent Metabolisable Energy corrected for nitrogen (kcal/kg)	2698
Crude Protein (%, N x 6.25)	12.49
Crude Fibre (%)	2.79
Ether Extract (%)	2.88
Total Ash (%)	10.96
Starch (%)	46.61
Calcium (%)	3.43
Total Phosphorus (%)	0.59
Na (%)	0.13
K (%)	0.58
Mg (%)	0.15
Mn (mg/kg)	142.49
Zn (mg/kg)	134.73
Fe (mg/kg)	143.16
Cu (mg/kg)	38.20
Selenium (mg/kg)	0.41
Iodate (mg/kg)	2.29
Lysine (%)	0.59
Methionine (%)	0.34
Methionine + Cystine (%)	0.46
Threonine (%)	0.49

¹Zn: 110 (mg/kg); Cu: 10 (mg/kg); Fe: 50 (mg/kg); Mn: 120 (mg/kg); Se: 0.30 (mg/kg); I: 2 (mg/kg) of diet;

²Vitamin A: 11000 IU/kg; D₃: 3500 IU/kg; E: 100 IU/kg; K₃: 5 mg/kg; B₁: 3 mg/kg; B₂: 12 mg/kg; B₃ (Niacin): 55 mg/kg; B₅ (Calpan): 15 mg/kg; B₆: 4 mg/kg; Biotin: 0.25 mg/kg; B₉: 2 mg/kg; B₁₂: 0.03 of diet;

³Termin (Anitox, USA)

⁴Toxin Binder (Innovad, Belgium)

⁵Coated Butyric Acid (Silo Health, Italy).

Table 3. Effect of chelated/non-chelated minerals on egg quantity characteristics (±SEM) at 54^th – 61^st weeks of ages.

Trait Treatment	Egg production (%)	Egg mass (g)	Average of egg weight (g/egg)	Number of settable eggs (egg/bird/week)	Number of unsettable eggs (egg/bird/week)
1	68.928^bc	45.023^bc	65.377	4.688^bc	0.132^ab
2	72.170^ab	47.083^ab	65.260	4.946^a	0.108^bc
3	73.022^a	47.799^a	65.744	5.016^a	0.100^c
4	71.263^abc	47.073^ab	66.071	4.854^ab	0.134^ab
5	68.516^bc	44.939^bc	65.630	4.668^bc	0.128^ab
6	67.884^c	44.846^bc	66.092	4.620^bc	0.132^ab
7	67.582^c	44.570^c	65.974	4.590^c	0.140^a
8	70.851^abc	46.736^abc	65.988	4.814^abc	0.140^a
P-value	0.012	0.014	0.371	0.004	0.025
SEM	0.485	0.313	0.108	0.035	0.004

Means with different superscript letters in a column are significantly different (p < 0.05). SEM: Standard Error of Means;

Treatment 1 (Negative control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as non-chelated form;

Treatment 2 (Positive control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 3: Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as 50% chelated form and 50% non-chelated form;

Treatment 4: Zn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 5: Cu provided as chelated form;

Treatment 6: Fe provided as chelated form;

Treatment 7: Mn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 8: Se provided as chelated form.

Table 4. Effect of chelated/non-chelated minerals, age (week) and their interaction on egg specific gravity.

Treatment	Egg specific gravity (g/cm^3)
1	1.077^c
2	1.080^a
3	1.079^ab
4	1.079^ab
5	1.078^b
6	1.079^ab
7	1.079^ab
8	1.080^a
P-value	<0.001
SEM	0.001
Week	Egg specific gravity (g/cm^3)
55	1.080^a
57	1.080^a
59	1.080^a
61	1.078^b
P-value	<0.001
SEM	0.001
Treatment × Week	Egg specific gravity (g/cm^3)
P-value	0.419
SEM	0.001

Means with different superscript letters in a column are significantly different (p < 0.05). SEM: Standard Error of Means;

Treatment 1 (Negative control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as non-chelated form;

Treatment 2 (Positive control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 3: Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as 50% chelated form and 50% non-chelated form;

Treatment 4: Zn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 5: Cu provided as chelated form;

Treatment 6: Fe provided as chelated form;

Treatment 7: Mn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 8: Se provided as chelated form.

Table 5. Effect of chelated/non-chelated minerals, age (week) and their interaction on percentage of 2-yolk, thin shell, deformed, broken and small eggs.

Treatment	2-yolk eggs	Thin shell eggs	Deformed eggs	Broken eggs	Small eggs
1	0.247	0.527	1.641^ab	0.205	0.170
2	0.039	0.310	1.486^ab	0.233	0.041
3	0.114	0.266	1.274^b	0.149	0.037
4	0.156	0.505	1.653^ab	0.079	0.202
5	0.252	0.410	1.567^ab	0.244	0.252
6	0.292	0.370	1.844^ab	0.131	0.265
7	0.212	0.455	2.011^a	0.165	0.216
8	0.309	0.471	1.817^ab	0.160	0.162
P-value	0.341	0.762	0.0175	0.865	0.251
SEM	0.030	0.042	0.064	0.028	0.028
Week	2-yolk eggs	Thin shell eggs	Deformed eggs	Broken eggs	Small eggs
54	0.000^c	0.332^b	1.271^c	0.039^c	0.039^b
55	0.041^c	0.377^b	1.363^bc	0.115^bc	0.000^b
56	0.272^abc	0.193^b	1.611^abc	0.113^bc	0.000^b
57	0.122^bc	0.191^b	1.753^abc	0.269^abc	0.000^b
58	0.205^abc	0.539^ab	1.601^abc	0.038^c	0.000^b
59	0.195^abc	0.483^b	1.900^ab	0.078^c	0.407^a
60	0.364^ab	0.329^b	2.078^a	0.338^ab	0.377^a
61	0.422^a	0.870^a	1.717^abc	0.376^a	0.521^a
P-value	0.007	0.002	0.061	0.008	<0.001
SEM	0.030	0.042	0.064	0.028	0.028
Treatment × Week	2-yolk eggs	Thin shell eggs	Deformed eggs	Broken eggs	Small eggs
P-value	1.000	1.000	1.000	1.000	0.999
SEM	0.030	0.042	0.064	0.028	0.028

Means with different superscript letters in a column are significantly different (p < 0.05). SEM: Standard Error of Means;

Treatment 1 (Negative control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as non-chelated form;

Treatment 2 (Positive control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 3: Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as 50% chelated form and 50% non-chelated form;

Treatment 4: Zn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 5: Cu provided as chelated form;

Treatment 6: Fe provided as chelated form;

Treatment 7: Mn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 8: Se provided as chelated form.

Table 6. Effect of chelated/non-chelated minerals on immunity and blood constitutes and sexual hormone (±SEM) at 61^st week of ages.

Trait Treatment	Antibody against Newcastle	Phytohemagglutinin	Phytohemagglutinin	Blood constitutes and sexual hormone
	44^th day of experiment	30^th day of experiment	31^st day of experiment	Glucose (mg/dl)	Trigelyceride (mg/dl)	AST (U/dl)	ALT (U/dl)	Progestrone (mg/dl)
1	6.920^b	0.646 ^cd	0.778^b	222.400^a	1038.400^b	3.956^ab	217.400^bc	0.240^b
2	7.960^a	0.814^a	0.988^a	199.000^abc	2622.200^a	6.000^a	271.400^ab	0.360^a
3	7.120^b	0.681^bcd	0.797^b	203.600^ab	1687.600^ab	4.916^ab	219.400^bc	0.160^c
4	7.080^b	0.726^bc	0.814^b	179.600^c	2206.600^ab	1.844^bc	218.000^bc	0.340^a
5	6.920^b	0.667^bcd	0.774^b	191.000^bc	1515.800^ab	0.294^c	211.200^c	0.300^ab
6	6.960^b	0.650 ^cd	0.750^b	200.200^abc	1637.400^ab	1.666^bc	215.000^bc	0.140^c
7	6.880^b	0.629^d	0.870^ab	209.600^ab	1894.400^ab	3.018^abc	235.600^bc	0.320^ab
8	7.320^ab	0.750^ab	0.982^a	214.200^ab	1091.000^b	2.408^bc	303.200^a	0.120^c
P-value	0.008	<0.001	0.001	0.008	0.007	0.009	0.009	<0.001
SEM	0.233	0.013	0.019	3.068	143.252	0.430	7.688	0.017

Means with different superscript letters in a column are significantly different (p < 0.05). SEM: Standard Error of Means; ALT: Alanine transaminase; AST: Aspartate transaminase;

Treatment 1 (Negative control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as non-chelated form;

Treatment 2 (Positive control): Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 3: Mn, Se, Cu, Fe and Zn provided as 50% chelated form and 50% non-chelated form;

Treatment 4: Zn provided as chelated Hosseini form;

Treatment 5: Cu provided as chelated form;

Treatment 6: Fe provided as chelated form;

Treatment 7: Mn provided as chelated form;

Treatment 8: Se provided as chelated form.

Data availability statement

Raw data is available from corresponding author upon resonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.