Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T17:20:53.232Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Plant and soil intake by organic broilers reared in tree- or grass-covered plots as determined by means of n-alkanes and of acid-insoluble ash

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2014

S. Jurjanz ,
K. Germain ,
H. Juin  and
C. Jondreville
S. Jurjanz*
Affiliation:
INRA, USC340 Animal et Fonctionnalités des Produits Animaux, ENSAIA, 2 avenue de la forêt de Haye, TSA 40602, 54518 Vandoeuvre cedex, France Université de Lorraine, EA 3998 Animal et Fonctionnalités des Produits Animaux, ENSAIA, 2 avenue de la forêt de Haye, TSA 40602, 54518 Vandoeuvre cedex, France
K. Germain
Affiliation:
INRA, UE 1206 Elevage Alternatif et Santé des Monogastriques, Le Magneraud, Saint-Pierre-d'Amilly, BP 52, 17700 Surgères, France
H. Juin
Affiliation:
INRA, UE 1206 Elevage Alternatif et Santé des Monogastriques, Le Magneraud, Saint-Pierre-d'Amilly, BP 52, 17700 Surgères, France
C. Jondreville
Affiliation:
INRA, USC340 Animal et Fonctionnalités des Produits Animaux, ENSAIA, 2 avenue de la forêt de Haye, TSA 40602, 54518 Vandoeuvre cedex, France Université de Lorraine, EA 3998 Animal et Fonctionnalités des Produits Animaux, ENSAIA, 2 avenue de la forêt de Haye, TSA 40602, 54518 Vandoeuvre cedex, France
*
†E-mail: Stefan.Jurjanz@univ-lorraine.fr
Get access

Abstract

Free-range birds such as organic broilers may ingest soil and plants during exploration. The estimation of such intakes is of great interest to quantify possible nutritional supplies and also to evaluate the risk of exposure to parasites or to environmental contaminants. Marker-based techniques are now available and would allow to quantify plant and, especially, soil intake in free-range birds, and this quantification was the aim of this study. Methodologically, the proportion of plants in diet intake was determined first using a method based on n-alkanes. Subsequently, the fraction of soil in the total intake was estimated with a second marker, acid-insoluble ash. This approach was carried out to estimate ingested amounts of plants and soil for five successive flocks of organic broilers, exploring grass-covered yards or those under trees, at two time points for each yard: 51 and 64 days of age. Each factor combination (yard type×period=flock number×age) was repeated on two different yards of 750 broilers each.

The birds’ plant intake varied widely, especially on grass-covered yards. The proportion of plant intake was significantly higher on grass-covered plots than under trees and was also affected, but to a lesser extent, by age or flock number. The ingestion of plants would generally not exceed 11 g of DM daily, except two extreme outliers of nearly 30 g. The daily plant intake under trees tended to be lower and never exceeded 7 g of DM. The amount of ingested plants increased significantly for spring flocks. It increased slightly but significantly with age. The proportion of ingested soil was significantly higher under trees than on grass-covered yards. Dry soil intake was generally low with not more than 3 g per day. Only in adverse conditions – that is, older birds exploring yards under trees in winter – soil intake reached the extreme value of nearly 5 g. Broilers on yards under trees ingested significantly more soil than on grass-covered yards with least square means of, respectively, 2.1 and 1.1 g dry soil per day. These quantifications would allow us to evaluate the impact of plant and soil intake in the management of free-range broilers, especially for the management in organic farming systems. Nevertheless, under the two rearing conditions tested in the current study, the quite low proportions of soil intakes would represent a low risk for the safety of the produced food, unless the birds explore yards on heavily contaminated soil.

Keywords

soil intakeplant intakebroilersfree rangen-alkanesacid-insoluble ash
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 9 , Supplement 5 , May 2015 , pp. 888 - 898
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcock, RE, Bacon, J, Bardget, RD, Beck, AJ, Haygarth, PM, Lee, RGM, Parker, CA and Jones, KC 1996. Persistence and fate of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sewage sludge-amended agricultural soils. Environmental Pollution 93, 83–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Almeida, GF, Hinrichsen, LK, Horsted, K, Thamsborg, SM and Hermansen, JE 2012. Feed intake and activity level of two broiler genotypes foraging different types of vegetation in the finishing period. Poultry Science 91, 2105–2113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Association Française de Normalisation 1992. Qualité des sols – Echantillonnage – Méthode de prélèvement d’échantillons de sol – NF X31-100, AFNOR Editions Saint-Denis La Plaine, France.Google Scholar
Bendell-Young, LI and Bendell, JF 1999. Grit ingestion as a source of metal exposure in the spruce grouse, Dendragapus canadensis . Environmental Pollution 106, 405–412.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beyer, NW, Connor, EE and Gerould, S 1994. Estimates of soil ingestion by wildlife. Journal of Wildlife Management 58, 375–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borin, K, Lindberg, JE and Ogle, RB 2006. Digestibility and digestive organ development in indigenous and improved chickens and ducks fed diets with increasing inclusion levels of cassava leaf meal. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition 90, 230–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Christensen, JW, Nielsen, BL, Young, JF and Nøddegaard, F 2003. Effects of calcium deficiency in broilers on the use of outdoor areas, foraging activity and production parameters. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 82, 229–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, M, Kwakkel, RP and Kijlstra, A 2006. Dioxins in organic eggs: a review. Netherlands Journal of Animal Science 54, 207–222.Google Scholar
Drouillard, KG and Norstom, RJ 2003. The influence of diet properties and feeding rates on PCB toxicokinetics in the ring dove. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 44, 97–106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dove, H, Mayes, RW and Freer, M 1996. Effects of species, plant part, and plant age on the n-alkane concentrations in the cuticular wax of pasture plants. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 47, 1333–1347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fournier, A, Feidt, C, Travel, A, LeBizec, B, Venisseau, A, Marchand, P and Jondreville, C 2012. Relative bioavailability to laying hens of indicator polychlorobiphenyls present in soil. Chemosphere 88, 300–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Germain, K, Parou, P, Chapuis, H, Pouget, R, Juin, H, Guéméné, D and Leterrier, C 2011. Des pistes pour améliorer l’utilisation du parcours chez les poulets de chair biologiques. 9th Conference of Poultry Research, 29–30 March, Tours, France, pp. 52–55.Google Scholar
Germain, K, Leterrier, C, Meda, B, Jurjanz, S, Cabaret, J, Lessire, M, Jondreville, C, Bonneau, C and Guéméné, D 2013. Elevage de poulet de chair biologique: l’utilisation du parcours influence de nombreux paramètres biotechniques. 10th Journeys of Poultry Research, 26–28 March, La Rochelle, France, pp. 211–215.Google Scholar
Hameleers, A, McNab, JM and Mayes, RW 1996. Use of saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons (alkanes) as markers in nutrition studies in chickens. British Poultry Science 37, 105–106.Google Scholar
Horsted, K, Hammershoj, M and Jermansen, JE 2006. Short-term effects on productivity and egg quality in nutrient-restricted versus non-restricted organic layers with access to different forage crops. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica Section A 56, 42–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horsted, K, Hermansen, JE and Ranvig, H 2007. Crop content in nutrient-restricted versus non-restricted organic laying hens with access to different forage vegetations. British Poultry Science 48, 177–184.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, BO and Dun, P 1983. A comparison of laying stock: housed intensively and in cages and outside of range. Research and Development Publication 18. The West of Scotland Agricultural College, Ayr, Scotland.Google Scholar
Jondreville, C, Travel, A, Besnard, J and Feidt, C 2010. Intake of herbage and soil by free-range laying hens offered a complete diet compared to a whole-wheat diet. Proceedings of the European Poultry Conference, 23–27 August, Tours, France, pp. 91–95.Google Scholar
Jondreville, C, Fournier, A, Travel, A, Feidt, C and Roudaut, B 2011. Chemical residues and contaminants in eggs. In Improving the safety and quality of eggs and egg products (ed. F Van Immerseel, Y Nys and M Bain), pp. 62–80. Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurjanz, S, Germain, K, Dziurla, MA, Juin, H and Jondreville, C 2014. Use of acid insoluble ash and n-alcanes as markers of soil and plants ingestion by chicken. Animal Feed Science and Technology 188, 92–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurjanz, S, Feidt, C, Pérez-Prieto, LA, Ribeiro Filho, MHN, Rychen, G and Delagarde, R 2012. Soil intake of lactating dairy cows in intensive strip-grazing systems. Animal 6, 1350–1359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kijlstra, A 2004. The role of the organic and free range poultry production systems on the dioxin levels in eggs. Proceedings of the 3rd SAFO Workshop, 16–18 September, Falenty, Poland, pp. 83–90.Google Scholar
Lead, WA, Steinnes, E, Bacon, JR and Jones, KC 1997. Polychlorinated biphenyls in UK and Norwegian soils: spatial and temporal trends. The Science of the Total Environment 193, 229–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivan, M, Ferreira, LMM, Garcia, U, Celaya, R and Osoro, K 2007. Application of n-alkanes as diet composition markers in grazing/browsing goats and sheep: effect of using different faecal recovery corrections and plant species grouping approaches. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 58, 1013–1022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivera-Ferre, MG, Lantinga, EA and Kwakkel, RP 2007. Herbage intake and use of outdoor area by organic broilers: effects of vegetation type and shelter addition. Netherlands Journal of Animal Science 54, 279–291.Google Scholar
SAS Institute 2011. Statistical analysis systems, version 9.3. SAS Institute, Cary, NC.Google Scholar
Schoeters, G and Hoogenboom, R 2006. Contamination of free-range chicken eggs with dioxin and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls. Molecular Nutrition and Food Research 50, 908–914.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schuhmacher, M, Nadal, M and Domingo, JL 2004. Levels of PCDD/Fs, PCBs and PCNs in soils and vegetation in an area with chemical and petrochemical industries. Environmental Science and Technology 38, 1960–1969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuler, F, Schmid, P and Schlatter, Ch 1997. The transfer of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans from soil into eggs of foraging chicken. Chemosphere 34, 711–718.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, LL and Strickland, JR 2007. Improved GC/MS method for quantitation of n-alkanes in plant and fecal material. Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry 55, 7301–7307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stephens, RD, Petreas, MX and Hayward, DG 1995. Biotransfer and bioacumulation of dioxins and furans from soil: chicken as a model for foraging animals. The Science of the Total Environment 175, 253–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugimura, K, Hori, E, Kurihara, Y and Itoh, S 1984. Nutritional value of earthworms and grashoppers as poultry feed. Japanese Poultry Science 21, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Keulen, J and Young, BA 1977. Evaluation of acid-insoluble ash as a natural marker in ruminant digestion studies. Journal of Animal Science 44, 282–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Overmeire, I, Waegeneers, N, Sioen, I, Bilau, N, de Henauw, S, Goeyens, L, Poussemier, L and Eppe, G 2009. Assessment of the chemical contamination in home-produced eggs in Belgium: general overview on the CONTEGG study. The Science of the Total Environment 407, 4419–4429.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Viet, PH, Hoai, PM, Minh, NH, Ngoc, NT and Hung, PT 2000. Persistent organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls in some agricultural and industrial areas in Northern Vietnam. Water Science and Technology 42, 223–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waegeneers, N, De Steur, H, De Temmerman, L, van Steenwinkel, S, Gellynck, X and Viaene, J 2009. Transfer of soil contaminants to home-produced eggs and preventive measures to reduce contamination. The Sciences of the Total Environment 407, 4438–4446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Jurjanz Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material S1

Download Jurjanz Supplementary Material(File)
File 2.4 MB
Supplementary material: File

Jurjanz Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material S2

Download Jurjanz Supplementary Material(File)
File 2.5 MB