Study on the Effects of Dietary ‎Addition of Organic Acids Program ‎on Growth Performance, Intestinal ‎Morphology, Acidity and Microbial ‎Count in Male Broiler Chickens

Different acidifiers have been introduced for animal nutrition in terms of type of organic acids and their composition. This study aimed to investigate the effects of consumption acidifier obtained from a mixture of organic acids (containing formic, citric, propionic and acetic acid and their salts) on the broiler chicks growth performance and some intestinal parameters .Therefore, one hundred eighty 1-d old male Ross broiler chicks were studid in a completely randomized design to 3  nutritional treatments with 6 replicates and 10 broiler chicks in each replicate, from d 0 to 35 posthatch. The treatments included 1. a  corn-soybean based commercial diet or Un-supplemnted diet (Control), 2. Control diet supplemented with acidifier daily and 3. Control diet supplemented with acidifier every other day. All of dietary treatments were formulated to meet the National Research Council (1994) and Ross nutrient requirements for starter (1 to 11 d), grower (12 to 24 d), and finisher (25 to 35 d) growth periods. The results showed that in the starter and grower phase, feed intake in groups 2 and 3 that had consumpted organic acids were less than control group or un-supplemented organic acids  (P˂0.05). In the starter phase, mean of  body weight gain of un-suplemented group or control was higher than the groups 2 and 3 or supplemented daily and every other day group, respectively  (P˂0.05); but experimental groups showed no significant change in their body weight gain during grower and finisher phases as well as whole rearing period affected by consumption of organic acids. The group  2 (daily supplemented) had better feed conversion ratio than control group during growth period (P˂0.05). The mean of ileal Enterobacteriaceae counts for the groups that had consumpted acidifiers (daily or  every other day) were significantly lower than control group (P˂0.05). The mean of villus length, villus width, crypt depth and villus height to crypt depth ratio of the ileum had no significant difference between groups affected by consumption of organic acids. The pH of ileal and duodenal contents between groups showed no significancy. The results of the present study revealed that supplemented diets with organic acids can reduce some of intestinal pathogens, improve the feed conversion ratio. Daily consumption of Organic acids was more effective than when it was consumption every other day for the bird growth performance characteristics.