The Advantage Of Using Coxidin® Until The End

Introduction

Coxidin® recently obtained 0-day withdrawal time in Europe making it possible to use the product until slaughter. This offers broiler producers the possibility to keep the coccidiostat in the feed until the end of the production cycle. Prevalence studies have identified the peak of coccidiosis lesions for E. maxima and E. tenella at around 28-32 days which coincides with thinning. Taking the coccidiostat out of the feed leaves the birds unprotected and increases the chances of coccidiosis issues at a later age. Considering the growth rate of broilers between 28-32 days, this pressure will have a big impact on performance. We designed a study to identify the benefit of keeping monensin in the feed until the end.

Study design

The study was conducted at the trial facility (Transfarm) of Leuven University, Belgium. There were 15 replicates per treatment and 18 birds (Ross 308, males) per pen. To simulate natural coccidiosis pressure, used litter was added to the pens on day 14 (0.5 kg per pen). This litter was collected from commercial broiler farms that had experienced some coccidiosis pressure. The birds were split into two groups (Table 1).

Table 1. Different treatment groups and feeding phases

Results

The average performance results for the two treatment groups are shown in Table 2. The difference in mortality was not related to the treatment as there were no specific findings in the birds and most of the birds died in the first 7 days.

Table 2. Average performance results (mortality, daily weight gain (DWG), feed conversion rate (FCR) and European production efficiency factor (EPEF) of birds fed a diet containing Coxidin® until thinning (day 28) or until the end of the production cycle

The performance results of the birds that received Coxidin® until the end compared with the group that only received Coxidin® until 28 days are shown in Figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 shows the difference in average daily gain (ADG) and Figure 2 shows the different in FCR. 

Figure 1. Average daily gain per feeding phase for broilers fed a diet containing Coxidin® until thinning (day 28) or until the end of the production cycle

Figure 2. Average FCR per feeding phase for broilers fed a diet containing Coxidin® until thinning (day 28) or until the end of the production cycle

Conclusion

The trial results show that including Coxidin® until the end of production improves the growth rate while also improving FCR in the finisher feed (day 28-35). This highlights the benefits of adding a coccidiostat to the feed until the end of the production cycle. Having the security of continuous coccidiosis control with the flexibility of being able to send birds to the slaughterhouse when they need to go reduces a lot of stress for producers.

Coxidin®: zero day - zero stress.