Relationship Between Growth and Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase Activity and the Development of Ascites in Broilers Subjected to Skip-a-day Feed Restriction

The present experiment was carried out to determine whether there is any relationship between the growth and the activity of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and the incidence of ascites in broiler chickens. Dietary treatments consisted of a control met NRC (1994) recommendations during 1-21 and 21-42d and a skip-a-day feed removal with 24h fasting on 9, 11 and 13d. The skip-a-day feed restriction resulted in reduced weekly body weights and decreased weight gain (P<0.0015) and feed intake (P<0.0072) over the realimentation period (14-42d). The skip-a-day feed removal enhanced the activity of serum LDH measured at 42 days of age (P<0.026). Our data demonstrated that there were no statistically significant differences between serum LDH activity and ascitic birds.