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Effects of dietary organic acids on performance, cecal microbiota, and gut morphology in broilers

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Abstract

Organic acids have exhibited great potential as an antibiotic replacement and as an additive work tremendously for health maintenance of broiler chicken. To explore more about organic acids, a total of 900 day-old broiler chicks (Cobb-500) were procured from a local hatchery and distributed into 9 treatment groups having 5 replicates of 20 birds each; duration of the biological trial was of 35 days. Group T1 served as control group without any dietary supplementation. Other groups T2 and T3 were boosted with different levels (125 g/ton and 250 g/ton) of enramycin (antibiotic), T4, T5, and T6 were supplemented with different levels (2 kg/ton, 3 kg/ton, and 4 kg/ton) of ammonium formate and ammonium propionate, and T7, T8, and T9 were fed with different levels (2 kg/ton, 3 kg/ton, and 4 kg/ton) of calcium formate and calcium propionate. The findings declared significant improvement (P < 0.05) in body weight gain and FCR in groups T3, T5, and T9 while feed intake was not affected. Carcass evaluation depicted significantly better (P < 0.05) dressed and eviscerated weight along with carcass yield (T5, T7, T8, T9). Broilers fed organic acid supplemented diet had significantly lower (P < 0.05) total bacterial count (T3, T5, T8, T9) and positively improved (P < 0.05) villi length (T5, T6, T9) as compared with control group. However, total protein, globulin, HDL, and LDL levels were determined to be non-significant (P > 0.05) among different organic acids treatments. Hence, organic acids can be utilized as a better replacement for antibiotics. Supplementation of organic acids at a dose rate of 3 kg/ton and 4 kg/ton is recommended for efficient performance of broilers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Nutrition, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan

    Kinza Saleem,  Saima & Talat Naseer Pasha

  2. Department of Animal Sciences, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Jhang Campus, Jhang, 35200, Pakistan

    Abdur Rahman & Zafar Hayat

  3. Department of Poultry Production, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan

    Athar Mahmud

Authors
  1. Kinza Saleem
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  2. Saima
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  3. Abdur Rahman
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  4. Talat Naseer Pasha
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  5. Athar Mahmud
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  6. Zafar Hayat
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Contributions

KS executed the trial; S, TNP, AM conceived the idea and supervised; AR, ZH worked in trial and manuscript write up.

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Correspondence to Abdur Rahman.

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Saleem, K., Saima, Rahman, A. et al. Effects of dietary organic acids on performance, cecal microbiota, and gut morphology in broilers. Trop Anim Health Prod 52, 3589–3596 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-020-02396-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-020-02396-2

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