The objective of the present study was to determine the best dietary level of L-arginine on the growth performance, carcass traits, and blood parameters of female Ross broiler chickens in the starter and grower periods. In this experiment, 192 day old female Ross broiler chicks were fed with 4 dietary treatments in a completely randomized design, in which each dietary treatment included 4 replications. Dietary treatments included 100%, 153%, 168% and 183% of digestible arginine, based on the Ross catalogue recommendation, and were fed from day 1 to 24. At the end of experiment, three chickens per replication were selected randomly, blood samples were collected from each, and they were slaughtered in order to measure carcass traits. The results showed that dietary arginine treatments had a significant (P<0.05) increasing effect on body weight, carcass efficiency, muscle yield, and growth of small intestine and decreasing effect on abdominal fat weight. Arginine supplementation increased (P<0.05) plasma concentrations of triiodothyronine and thyroxin, but reduced (P<0.05) plasma concentrations of triglyceride and urea. According to the results of this study, consumption level of 168% digestible arginine, based on the Ross catalogue recommendation, had the best results on growth improvement and carcass traits.
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