High concentrations of dietary Cu have been shown to improve growth performance of broilers raised without antibiotics. A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding high concentrations of dietary Cu to male broilers from 29 to 53 D of age. Broilers received common diets containing 135 mg/kg of supplemental Cu until 28 D of age. During the finisher 1 (29–40 D of age) and finisher 2 (41–53 D of age) phases, broilers received 1 of 5 treatments. These 5 dietary treatments were formulated at 0-0, 135-0, 270-0, 135-135, or 270-270 mg/kg of supplemental Cu in the finisher 1 and finisher 2 periods, respectively. At 54 D of age, 14 birds per pen were processed and were front-half deboned to determine breast meat weights and yields and evaluated for breast meat quality defects. No significant differences were observed for growth performance characteristics because of high variance in BW gain and feed conversion ratio. Broilers fed 270-270 mg/kg of Cu diets had higher total breast yield than the broilers fed no supplemental Cu from 29 to 53 D of age (28.1% vs. 27.6%). Severity of white striping or wooden breast was not affected by Cu treatment. These data indicate that high concentrations of dietary Cu may increase breast meat weight and yield of broilers processed at 54 D of age with no adverse effects on meat quality.

饮食中高浓度的铜已被证明可以改善没有抗生素的肉鸡的生长性能。进行了一项研究，以评估向29至53 D岁的雄性肉鸡饲喂高浓度的日粮Cu的效果。直到28日龄，肉鸡都接受了含135 mg / kg补充铜的普通饮食。在肥育阶段1（年龄29–40 D）和肥育阶段2（年龄41–53 D）阶段中，肉鸡接受了5种处理中的1种。这5种饮食疗法分别在育肥猪1和育肥猪2阶段分别以0-0、135-0、270-0、135-135或270-270 mg / kg的补充铜配制。在54日龄时，每只钢笔处理14只鸡，将其前半剔骨以确定胸肉的重量和产量，并评估胸肉的质量缺陷。由于体重增加和饲料转化率差异很大，因此未观察到生长性能特征的显着差异。饲喂270-270 mg / kg铜日粮的肉鸡比不饲喂29至53 D年龄的补充铜的肉鸡具有更高的总胸脯产量（28.1％比27.6％）。Cu处理不会影响白色条纹或木制乳房的严重程度。这些数据表明，高浓度的饮食中的铜可能会增加胸肉的重量和在54天龄时加工的肉鸡的产量，而对肉质没有不利影响。