In ovo nutrient supplementation improves the performance and intestinal morphology in early feed deprived egg type chickens.

The effect of in ovo feeding (IOF) in ameliorating the adverse effects of feed deprivation (FD) was studied in egg type chickens (White leghorn). The experimental design was a 3 x 3 factorial design with three treatments (in ovo, sham and un-injected control) and three types of feeding (immediate fed or fasted for 24 h and 36 h) as factors. Response criteria were embryonic weight, digestive organ development, growth performance, intestinal and villi morphology. Embryonic weight at 20 d (% of pre incubated egg) in IOF group was significantly higher compared to un-injected control group. IOF chicks had higher body weight (BW), proventriculus weight, duodenal villi length (VL) and villi width (VW) at 24 and 36 h post hatch (PH) than the sham control and un-injected control chicks. Immediately fed and 24 h FD chicks had significantly higher BW than 36 h FD chicks, while organ weight was higher in immediately fed chicks compared to FD chicks. The IOF and 24 h FD chicks had higher digestive organ weight, BW and VL than the un-injected and immediately fed chicks. IOF and 36 h FD chicks had comparable performances with un-injected control and immediately fed chicks. It is concluded that in ovo supplemented chicks can withstand early post-hatch feed deprivation and had improved PH performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]