An experiment was conducted with male broiler chicks to study the effects of 20 and 23% of crude protein (CP) combined with 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 mEq/kg of dietary electrolytic balance (DEB) on the pancreatic alpha-amylase activity from 1 to 21 days. A completely randomized factorial design was used. Feed and water were supplied ad libitum. At days 1, 7, 14 and 21, three birds from each treatment were sacrificed by cervical dislocation, pancreas were removed, homogeneized and frozen in liquid nitrogen which were then freeze-dried. An aliquot of each sample was solubilized with deionized water and centrifuged at 7500 x g for three minutes at 4ºC. Activities of the pancreatic alpha-amylase in the supernatants were determined. Chicks fed 20% of CP showed specific activities (U/mg protein) higher than those fed 23%, except for DEB levels from 100 to 200 mEq/kg at 14 days. A tendency to increase specific activity was observed from 7 to 14 days and to reduce from 14 to 21 days. The highest specific activity of pancreatic alpha-amylase was observed in diets with 20% CP and 200 mEq/kg of DEB from 1 to 7 days, diets with 20% of CP and 135 to 250 mEq/kg of DEB from 8 to 21 days of age.
alpha-amylase; broiler chicks; dietary protein; electrolytic balance; pancreas
