THE EFFECT OF DIETARY IRON ON ITS CONTENT IN THE LIVER IN BROILERS

The experiment was conducted on 35 „Cobb“ chicken, the most present fattening hybrid on our farms. The chicken was not separated by gender. During the first three weeks the chicks were fed with the starter, the following two weeks with the grower, and toward the fattening, in the six th week, with the finisher. The feed mixtures differed in content and metabolic energy/protein ratio. Pre-mixes produced by the „Lek“ Ljubljana provided 30 mg of iron per 1 kg of mixture to the chicken. Chemical analysis detected the following content of iron per mixture: starter 134,8 mg/kg, grower 142,9 mg/kg and finisher 137,8 mg/kg. At the end of the fattening period on the 42nd day, an average live chicken body weight was 2.329 g, and carcass weight was 1.720 g. The average natural liver weight was 38,90 g and average liver iron content was 169,35 mg /kg ranging from 106,7 to 223,8 mg/kg. Key words: iron, liver, chicken, mixture