Applied Research Note: Maternal flaxseed diet did not affect body weight of broiler chickens diagnosed with novel avian reovirus and infectious bronchitis

Abstract

Feeding breeder hens diets enriched with omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FA) has previously been shown to increase their progeny's immunocompetence. During an experiment to assess the effects of maternal-fed n-3 FA on broiler behavior, broiler chickens experienced an unexpected disease outbreak. Here, we present the broiler offspring's body weight, uniformity, and feed intake data. Broiler breeders were fed diets with or without flaxseed (n-3 FA source) in the rearing or laying period. Two cohorts of broiler offspring were hatched and placed in 24 mixed-sex pens per cohort. Broiler offspring were weighed weekly, and uniformity (CV%) was calculated by sex on a pen level. Cumulative feed intake was recorded, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was estimated per pen. Cohort 1 was diagnosed with infectious bronchitis at 2 wk, and Cohort 2 at 5 d of age and was further diagnosed with avian reovirus. Broiler offspring weighed 41% less than the target weight at 6 wk of age. Flaxseed fed to breeders during the laying period resulted in lighter offspring weight at 6 wk of age (z = 3.98, P < 0.001). Uniformity was not affected by maternal diet (χ² = 6.51, P = 0.26). Maternal rearing diet (F = 3.35, P = 0.07), but not laying diet (F = 0.65, P = 0.42) nor their interaction (F = 2.34, P = 0.13) affected feed intake. Flaxseed rearing (F = 4.54, P = 0.04) and laying (F = 6.24, P = 0.02) diets increased offspring FCR, broilers from broiler breeders fed flaxseed throughout had the poorest feed conversion (P < 0.03). The study showed that maternal-fed flaxseed diets did not modulate the impact of disease on the growth performance of broiler chickens.