Nutritional imprinting
and its benefits in poultry
Programming chicks through early dietary manipulation shows promise in producing
effects of signi;cant economic importance to the poultry industry. BY GARY THORNTON
Epigenetics or neonatal programming of poultry might
soon be used to improve ;ock
performance and reduce environmental pollution.
One way to reduce the
amount of phosphorus and nitrogen in poultry waste, which
ultimately reaches the environment as water and air pollution,
is to feed less of those nutrients
in the ;rst place. Neonatal programming of poultry offers a
potential way to do this while
cutting production costs.
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Epigenetic techniques
being tested
The concept being tested by
researchers at the University of
Maryland and North Carolina
State University involves reducing certain nutrients (such
as phosphorus, calcium or
protein) in the diets of early
post-hatch chicks for a 90-
hour period. The treated, or
imprinted, birds then are able
to better absorb those nutrients
later in life.
The researchers are now at
work to adapt the epigenetic
techniques that have been successful in poultry in the lab and
;oor-pen trials to commercial
industry conditions.
Broilers fed a moderately deficient diet (L) for 90 hours post hatch were better able to handle a deficiency in
phosphorus in the grower/finisher phase than the control birds.
