Recently, the Poultry Nutrition and Feed Innovation Team from the Institute of Feed Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences revealed the ameliorative effects of in ovo  feeding of N-carbamylglutamate (NCG) on growth hormones, carcass yield, and meat quality in broilers. The results were published in the Journal of the Science and Food Agriculture.

N-carbamylglutamate is a synthetic compound that is structural analog to N-acetylglutamate (NAG) and functions as an allosteric activator of carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) in the urea cycle. It can exerts long lasting ameliorative effects on the growth performance of chicks compared with the Arg and N-acetylglutamate (NAG) due to its characteristics of more stable, cheaper, and not easily degraded by the amino acid metabolism enzymes ordeacylase. Thus, the dynamic balance of muscle protein breakdown and synthesis can be regulated through the in ovo  feeding of NCG to ensure sustainable and high-quality broiler meat production. However, as of now, the available information regarding the effect of in ovo  NCG injection on the growth performance, tissue development, and blood parameters of broiler chicks is not clearly understood.

The result of this study showed that NCG in ovo  feeding improved body weight (BW) at growing phase, increased growth and testosterone hormone in both feeding phases (21 and 42 days), and improved ADG and FCR in both feeding phases. Triiodothyronine (T₃) and tetraiodothyronine (T₄) levels, carcass yield, dressing, drum weight, breast muscle weight, drumstick weights, thighs, pectoralis major , and their part percentage of carcass were also improved in the NCG group. Moreover, in ovo  feeding of NCG also improved pectoralis  breast muscle color values at 24 hrs postmortem. Taken together; our results suggest that injecting NCG (2mg/egg) into the amnion of embryonic broiler eggs improved post-hatch growth performance in broiler chicks by upregulation of thyroid and testosterone hormone, indicating potential involvement in embryonic nutritional programming in chickens.

This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the Beijing Innovation Consortium of Agriculture Research System, and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (ASTIP).

Original link: https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.13639

Source: Wang Yuan-hao (zhanghaijun@caas.cn）