Pre-cecal Phosphorus Digestibility of Dicalcium Phosphate and Monocalcium Phosphate in Broilers

The aim of this study was to determine the prececal phosphorus (P) digestibility of dicalcium phosphate (DCP) and monocalcium phosphate (MCP) for broiler using the linear regression method. A total of 360-d-old male Ross 308 broilers were raised until 20 days of age with a standard commercial starter diet (metabolizable energy, 3000 kcal/kg, crude protein, 22%, Ca 0.9%, P 0.6%). On 21 days of age all birds were weighed and assigned to 5 experimental treatment groups with 6 replicate cages each consisted of 12 birds. Each P source was included at two levels (to achieve increments of 0.075% and 0.15%) to the basal diet. Titanium dioxide was included at 0.5% in all diets as indigestible marker. On day 28, all birds were sacrificed and ileal digesta were collected. The prececal P digestibility of DCP and MCP were calculated by the linear regression to be 76.60% and 85.83%, respectively. The present results suggest that the P digestibility of the P sources should be considered when formulating broiler diets to achieve optimum dietary P concentrations without increasing diet cost and environmental pollution from P excretion.