Effect of treated and untreated low swelling bentonite (Montmorillonite) and zeolite on performance of broilers

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of treated and untreated low swelling bentonite and zeolite on performance of Arian male broiler chicks. The chicks were allocated by randomized experimental design to 4 treatments for 42 days. Each of treatments had 4 pens and 7 chicks in each pen. The treatments were basal diet (control group), a diet with 1% treated bentonite (cu-b), a diet with 1% untreated bentonite (b) and a diet with 1% zeolite (z). Diets were isocaloric, isonitrogenus and corn – soybean meal based. Weekly and total period body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, mortality percentage and production index were determined. The results showed that weight gain, feed conversion ratio, mortality percent and production index were better in untreated bentonite treatment in total period. Percent of mortality in untreated bentonite and zeolite treatments were significantly less than control and treated bentonite groups (p<0.05), but differences between the other factors was not significant (p>0.05).