Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Animal Production

An attempt has been made to synthesize dicalcium phosphate in nano particle size (NDCP) using Sol-Gel method, characterize and examine it on feeding broiler chicks compared with the conventional dicalcium phosphate (CDCP). Two samples of NDCP were synthesized using deionized water or ethanol as a solvent. The synthesized NDCP was characterized by means of fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Energy Dispersive Analysis by X-ray (EDAX). A broiler growth experiment was designed to investigate the effect of using NDCP on growth performance, carcass characteristics, bone measurements and Ca and P excretion. Anumper of 280 one-day old (Ross 308) male broiler chicks were divided into seven treatment groups received three levels of either CDCP or NDCP being 1.75%, 1.31 and 0.88% and less level of NDCP being 0.44 % of NDCP. These levels represent 100, 75, 50 and 25% of the recommended P requirement. The experiment lasted 26 days. The results indicated that using ethanol solvent resulted in 81.8% NDCP and 18.2% calcium carbonate, but deionized water solvent gave 100% NDCP. The mean crystal sizes of NDCP synthesized using deionized water or ethanol as a solvent was 26 nm and 34 nm, respectively. The NDCP synthesized using deionized water as a solvent was better than that synthesized by ethanol in purity, size and cost of synthesis. The proposed method is environmentally friendly, economic, time-saving and could be performed at room temperature.

Issued also as CD