The inclusion of poultry viscera meal (VM) in broiler diets to possibly replace it with strictly vegetable diet (VE) and vice-versa, using the technique of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in different tissues was traced. One hundred ninety-two one-day-old chicks that had been distributed randomly were used in twelve experimental treatments with four replications of four chicks each. The treatments consisted of vegetable diet (VG) for diets containing FV going after a certain age or the reverse, in which the birds began feeding VM on diet and then switched to VE diet. At 42 days of age, samples of pectoral muscle (Pectoralis major), keel and tibia were collected, with later determination of isotopic ratios (13C/12C and 15N/14N). The stable isotopes technique couldn't trace the use of VM in feeding broilers when this ingredient was part of broiler diets only in the first seven, 14 or 21 days of age. However, this technique can be applied to younger poultry that have been sampled before a possible change in diet, since they can have the isotopic signature of feeding stabilized around two weeks of age.
broiler; poultry viscera meal; stable isotopes; carbon-13; nitrogen-15
