Effect of dietary supplementation of acidifiers and essential oils on growth performance and intestinal health of broiler

Abstract

SUMMARY The present study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of combinations of organic, inorganic acidifier and essential oil blends on growth performance and intestinal health of broilers. A total of 1200 Vencobb 400 male and female chicks were randomly distributed to 6 treatment groups with 10 replicates of 20 birds each. Treatments groups were Control (C) without acidifier, combination of inorganic acid/ organic acids (T1), combinations of organic acids (T2), combination of organic acids and essential oil (T3), combination of organic acids and medium chain fatty acids (T4) and double salted organic acid (T5). Corn-soybean diet supplemented with 5% meat and bone meal was fed to provoke challenges on intestinal health conditions. Body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and livability were measured until 42 days on weekly basis. On day 42, intestinal lesion scoring and ileal microbial populations of birds (Total coliforms, Clostridium perfringens, lactic acid bacteria) were assessed. On day 42, combination of organic acids (T2) and organic acids with essential oil (T3) had shown significantly improved body weight and average daily gain over control (C) (P