Bone phosphorus retention and bone development of broilers at different ages

ABSTRACT The present study was carried out to investigate the tibia phosphorus (P) retention and development as well as their correlations and possible mechanisms of broilers at different ages. A total of 320 1-day-old Arbor Acres male broilers were raised in 8 replicate cages of 40 birds per cage, and fed the same corn-soybean diets for 42 d. Plasma and tibia samples of broilers were collected on day 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, or 42. The results showed that the tibia ash P content increased linearly (P = 0.017), and the total P accumulation in tibia ash increased linearly and quadratically (P 0.15) response was observed for the tibia alkaline phosphatase (ALP) with age. The tibia ash P content was positively correlated with the tibia BMD (r = 0.325, P = 0.014), ash (r = 0.325, P = 0.001), and ALP (r = 0.377, P = 0.004). The total P accumulation in tibia ash also was positively correlated with all of the above traits of bone development (r = 0.437 to 0.976, P