Materials and methods
The protocol for this experiment was approved by the
Ethics Committee on Animal Use in Experimentation
(CEAE/UEM) of the Universidade Estadual de Maring
a (UEM, Maringa, Parana, Brazil), and birds were
cared according to the Ethical Principles for Animal
Experimentation established by the Brazilian Society
of Laboratory Animal Science (SBCAL) and National
Council for the Control of Animal Experimentation
(CONCEA).
In all, 1020 1-day-old male Cobb-Vantress chicks
from 40-week-old breeders were distributed in a completely
randomised experimental design among five
replicates of six treatments, which consisted of six levels
of supplementation of the diet with an ethanolic