Effect of dietary supplementation of acidifier as an alternative to antibiotic on growth performance and carcass parameters of broiler chicken

An experiment was conducted to study the effects of dietary supplementation of acidifier as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoter on performance and carcass characteristics of commercial broiler chickens. The experiment was conducted for a period of six weeks on 192 straight run day old commercial broiler chicks which were distributed randomly to six treatment consisting of four replicates with 8 chicks per replicate. The treatments were: T₁ control (No antibiotic and no organic acid), T₂ Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate (BMD) @ 50g/100 kg feed, T₃ coated Sodium Butyrate @ 0.2% (200g/100kg feed), T₄ coated Sodium Butyrate @ 0.4% (400g/100kg feed), T₅ Esterified Sodium Butyrate @ 0.2% (200g/100kg feed) and T₆ Esterified Sodium Butyrate @ 0.4% (400g/100kg feed). At the end of the experimental period, the mean body weight of birds fed with T₁, T₂, T₃, T₅ and T₆ rations were significantly (P<0.05) higher than T₄ ration. The body weight gain (g) of birds during pre-starter and starter phase differed significantly (P<0.05) but not during the finisher phase. The birds of various treatments did not show significant difference in terms of carcass characteristics. Butyric acid may serve as a good alternative to antibiotic growth promoter. However, coated butyric acid at the rate of 0.4% was found to be detrimental to broiler performance.