The Influences Of Hempseed Cake Meal On The Growth And Immune Characters Of Starting Chickens

The experimental animals used in this study are 140 Avine starting chickens of zero week age. The design of the experiment is completely randomized. There are four treatment levels in the experiment (A B C and D). The basal diet is maize - soybean cake meal - fish meal. The treatments are to use 0%, 2%, 4% and 6% of hempseed cake meal to substitute the soybean cake meal. There are five repeat units in each treatment, and six starting chickens in each unit. The experiment lasts for 28 days. The experiment results show:1. The addition of hempseed cake meal at 2%, 4% and 6% level does not affect the weight gain of starting chickens significantly (P>0.05). The weight gains of treatment groups at the age of 1, 2 and 3 week are higher than that of control group, but the differences are not significant (P>0.05). The weight gain of group C was the highest during 1st week, the weight gain of group D was the highest during 2nd and 3rd week. The differences among treatment groups are also not significant (P>0.05). By 4th week, the weight gain of group A (control group) is higher than that of group B, and very close to group C, although the difference does not reach a significant level. For the whole trial period, the average daily gain of group D is the highest, group B is the lowest. The difference between group D and group B is significant (P<0.05), the differences among other groups are not significant (P>0.05). The intake of control group is the highest, but not significantly different from treatment groups (P>0.05). The survival rates of three treatment groups are higher than control group, but not significant (P>0.05).2. Measurements on four important immune organs (spleen, thymus, F and liver) show that spleen weights of three trial groups are higher than control group, but the differences are not significant (P>0.05), group D has the heaviest thymus, group A the 2nd and group B the last. There is no significant difference among the four groups (P>0.05). F weight of control group is significantly higher than three trial groups ((P<0.05). There is no significant difference among trial groups (P>0.05). Liver weight of control group is significantly higher than three trial groups ((P<0.05). IgG is not significantly different between control group and 2% hempseed cake meal group (P>0.05), but significantly different between control group and 4% and 6% hempseed cake meal group (P>0.05). The level of urea-N in serum increases as the amounts of hempseed cake meal increase for 2%, 4% and 6% group. 6% group is very close to control group, the two groups are not significantly different.3. The additions of hempseed cake meal do not significantly influence the protein retaining amount and rate of starting chickens during the trial period, but the protein retaining amount and rate of trial groups (B, C and D) are higher than control group, although not significant (P>0.05). The protein retaining amount and rate of group D is slightly higher than other groups, but not significant (P>0.05).4.Matching the level of hempseed cake meal addition with growth performance, immune organs and immune criteria of starting chickens, resulting R~2>0.99.5. Considering the price difference of hempseed cake meal and soybean cake meal, and the real feed consumption of starting chickens, the feed cost of trial groups is slightly lower than control group.