The effect of Diet Acidification with Hydrochloric and Butyric Acids on Performance, Apparent Protein Digestibility, Length and Microbial Count of Small Intestine in Broiler Chickens

The effects of hydrochloric and butyric acids supplementation to broiler chicken diets were investigated on performance, apparent protein digestibility, intestinal microbial population, carcass characteristics and intestinal histology. In these experiments, 280 male Ross 308 one-day old chicks were assigned to 7 treatments. Each treatment included 4 replicates of 10 chicks. Data were analyzed in a completely randomized design. Treatment diets consisted of dietary addition of two levels of hydrochloric acid (1.5 and 3 percent), two levels of butyric acid (0.2 and 0.4 percent) and two levels of the acids mixture (1.5 0.4 and 3 0.2 percent). One treatment with no acid supplementation was considered as control group. The results showed that addition of hydrochloric and butyric acids in grower period to the diets of broiler chicks had a significant effect on average body weight and body weight gain. The level of 3 percent hydrochloric acid caused lowest and 0.4 percent butyric acid caused highest average body weight and average daily gain in both experiments. Supplemented acids significantly affect feed intake and feed conversion ratio in the grower period. Three percent hydrochloric acid treatment and mixed of the acids (3 0.2 percent) had lowest feed intake. Acid treatments had no significant effect on microbial count of ileum, carcass characteristics and histology of the small intestine of broiler chickens. The results of current experiment showed that the use of hydrochloric acid and butyric acid in diets had no positive effect on growth performance, carcass characteristics and morphology of the small intestine of broiler chickens that were grown under experimental conditions.