1. The hypothesis was that a diet with a high starch to fat ratio (HS) impairs nutrient digestibility and growth performance, as compared to a diet with a low starch to fat ratio (LS) in Eimeria-challenged broilers. From days 10 to 29, 12 replicate pens of birds were given isocaloric and isonitrogenous steam-pelleted diets with either HS or LS, by replacing the wheat starch in one diet by a mixture of rapeseed oil and inert sand in the other. On d 17, a 10-fold dose of live vaccine strains of Eimeria spp. was administered via drinking water. Ileal samples were collected on days 16 and 29. 2. Starch content in the ileum tended to be higher on d 16 and was significantly higher on d 29 in the HS group. 3. The HS diet did not induce exceedingly high levels of starch in the ileum, suggesting there was no starch overload in the gut. Ileal starch digestibility was improved with increasing dietary starch level from 23% to 45%. This demonstrated the capacity of the broiler chicken to digest high levels of starch regardless of Eimeria spp. infection. Ileal energy digestibility was not affected by the treatments. 4. Weight gain did not differ between treatments; however, birds fed the LS diet were less efficient in feed conversion as compared to those fed the HS diet. 5. The use of isolated starch and the unintended higher extent of starch gelatinisation in the HS diet may have contributed to the higher starch digestibility in birds given the HS diet. Thus, the hypothesis that high ratios of starch to fat in pelleted diets may impair starch digestibility and production performance in Eimeria-challenged broiler chickens was not verified. Further work is required to clarify this research question, taking into consideration the physical form of starch source and the potentially confounding role of feed processing on starch availability.
Keywords: Starch digestibility; amylase; broilers; feed processing; growth performance; small intestine.