Water intake in broilers as affected by insoluble fibres and exogenous protease in a reduced crude protein diet

Water is important for the overall health and performance of birds, yet less focus has been on water compared to the other nutrients. Increase or decrease in water to feed intake ratio (WI:FI) indicates issues related to nutrition, health or management of the shed particularly in broilers due to their fast growth. An automated water measurement system was developed at the University of New England to measure water intake in broilers. This system was used to measure water intake in two experiments to determine the effects of dietary inclusion of insoluble fibre and exogenous protease in a reduced crude protein (RP) diet. The hypothesis was that the reduction in dietary crude protein would decrease water intake and adding insoluble fibre or protease in RP diets would not affect water intake of birds beyond the effect produced by the RP diets. In both the experiments, day-old Ross 308 male parental birds were used and fed a common starter diet until d 10. The birds were reared in floor pens with wood shavings as bedding material.