Dietary protein effects on the broiler's adaptation to triiodothyronine.

The purpose of this experiment was to study the effects of dietary protein on metabolic adaptations in birds given triiodothyronine (T3) at 28 d of age. Knowledge about the role of dietary protein in thyroid metabolism is lacking. Male broiler chickens were fed diets containing either 120 or 300 g crude protein/kg from 7 to 28 d. At this time, one-half of each group was given that diet supplemented with 1 mg/kg T3. Birds were sampled at 0, 2, 5, 7, 9 and 12 d following the initiation of the T3 treatments. Measurements taken at these intervals included in vitro lipogenesis (IVL), growth and feed consumption, hepatic enzyme activities and plasma thyroid hormones and metabolites. As expected, IVL was greater at 28 d in birds fed the lower level of protein. Moreover, when T3 was added to either diet, IVL decreased by 50% after 5 d. Plasma IGF-I and T4 were greater while T3 and GH were less when birds were fed the higher level of crude protein. Plasma T3 increased and T4 decreased 3 d following the addition of T3 to diets containing either level of crude protein. Most metabolic changes in response to feeding T3 occurred within 2 to 5 d, suggesting that changes in intermediary metabolism preceded morphological changes that we have previously seen. In addition, dietary protein levels may not affect adaptive responses to T3.