STUDIES ON THE FEEDING OF CUPRIC SULFATE PENTAHYDRATE, CUPRIC CITRATE, AND COPPER-OXYCHLORIDE TO BROILER-CHICKENS

Male commercial broiler strain chickens were fed either a control diet (based on corn and soybean meal) or the control diet supplemented wit h cupric sulfate pentahydrate, copper oxychloride, or cupric citrate i n two experiments conducted in floor pens. In Experiment 1, feeding co pper at 125 mg/kg diet for 42 d significantly increased broiler growth ; and the response from cupric citrate was significantly better than e ither cupric sulfate or copper oxychloride. In Experiment 2, the inclu sion of copper from cupric citrate was reduced to 63 mg/kg and the len gth of the experiment was increased to 56 d. Cupric sulfate pentahydra te and copper oxychloride treatments increased weight gain by 4.9% and cupric citrate increased weight gain by 9.1%. The feed conversion rat ios (grams of feed:grams of gain of live birds) in the birds fed coppe r were not significantly different from those fed the basal diet (P > 0.05) unless corrections were made for the weights of the dead birds; the adjusted feed conversion ratios (grams of feed:grams of gain of li ve birds + grams of gain of mortalities) for the copper-treated birds in Experiments 1 and 2 were 5.2 and 7.6% lower, respectively, than the ratios of birds fed the basal diets. Plasma copper levels increased i n supplemented chicks by 35% in Experiment 1 and 24% in Experiment 2. Liver copper levels in both experiments were increased by 26% with cop per supplementation. Mortality was not affected by dietary treatment i n either experiment (P > 0.05).