Effect of Butyric Acid on Performance, Gastrointestinal Tract Health and Carcass Characteristics in Broiler Chickens

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of graded levels of butyric acid (butyrate) on performance, gastrointestinal tract health and carcass characteristics in young broiler chickens. Control starter (0-3 wk) and finisher (4-5 wk) diets were formulated to contain 2,900 kcal ME/kg and 22% CP, and 3,000 kcal ME/kg and 20% CP, respectively. Subsequently, four other experimental diets were formulated to contain 0.05% antibiotic (furazolidone) or 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6% butyric acid. Each diet was fed at random to 8 replicates of 6 chicks each throughout the experimental period (0-5 wk). The results showed that 0.4% butyrate in the diet was similar to antibiotic in maintaining body weight gain and reducing E. coli numbers but superior for feed conversion ratio. No added advantage on these parameters was obtained by enhancing the concentration of butyrate from 0.4 to 0.6% in the diet. Feed intake and mortality were not influenced by the dietary treatments. A reduction in pH of the upper GI tract (crop, proventiculus and gizzard) was observed by inclusion of butyrate in the diets of broilers compared to either control or antibiotic-fed group. Butyrate at 0.4% was more effective in reducing the pH than 0.2% butyrate. Within the lower GI tract, 0.4 and 0.6% butyrate was effective in lowering pH in the duodenum, but no effect was found in either the jejunum or ileum. The villus length and crypt depth in the duodenum increased significantly in all the butyrate treated diets irrespective of the level tested. Carcass yield was higher and abdominal fat content was lower significantly in all the butyrate treatment groups compared to the control or antibiotic group. From these findings, it is concluded that 0.4% butyric acid supplementation maintained performance, intestinal tract health, and villi development and carcass quality in broiler chickens.

Lower Illeal Microflora and Growth Performance of Broilers Supplemented with Organic Acid Blend (Aciflex®) During Starter Phase

“…The organic acids eliminate the coliforms from the gastrointestinal tract by reducing the pH, which is unsuitable for the multiplication of the acid-intolerant species such as E. coli and Salmonella (Panda et al, 2009). Our results are in line with Hassen (2011); Park (2011), who stated that total salmonella and E. coli counts were significantly affected by organic acid.…”

Sodium butyrate in chicken nutrition: the dynamics of performance, gut microbiota, gut morphology, and immunity

“…Adil et al (2010) reported that dietary butyric acid (3% application rate) significantly increased the villus height in the duodenum and jejunum only. Similarly, many researchers have described the beneficial effect of dietary sodium butyrate on villi height and crypt depth in broilers at different phases of their growth (Antongiovanni et al, 2007;Mallo et al, 2012;Panda et al, 2009;Sayrafi et al, 2011;Smulikowska et al, 2009). On the contrary, some researchers did not find any effect of dietary sodium butyrate on villi height and crypt depth (Leeson et al, 2005).…”

“…(Antongiovanni et al, 2007;Leeson et al, 2005;Taherpour et al, 2009). Similarly, butyric acid enhanced the weight gain and FCR (Panda et al, 2009). Likewise, partially protected and microencapsulated sodium butyrate positively affected the performance of broilers during the grower and finisher periods (Mallo et al, 2010;Zou et al, 2010a).…”

Butyric Acid as an Antibiotic Substitute for Broiler Chicken A Review

“…Similarly, serum triglyceride level was also found to be reduced when BAG was supplemented in broiler ration at 0.2 ( Jang, 2011;Mansoub, 2011a) and BA at 0.25 % (Dehghani-Tafti and Jahanian, 2016). Addition of 0.6 (Panda et al, 2009), 0.3 % BA (Lakshmi and Sunder, 2015) in broiler chicken reduced the abdominal fat. While, it was not influenced by inclusion of 0.04 % microencapsulated SB (Zhang et al, 2011b), 0.3 % protected BA (Mahdavi andTorki, 2009), 0.25 (Aghazadeh andYazdi, 2012) and 0.2 % BAG ( Jang, 2011).…”

“…eFFect on ph oF intestinAl digestA Supplementation of 0.6% BA reduces the pH of gastrointestinal segments such as crop, proventriculus, gizzard and duodenum (Panda et al, 2009), whereas, ileal pH was not altered by addition of 0.3 % BAG (Mahdavi and Torki, 2009) and 0.03% coated SB (Czerwinski et al, 2012) in broiler ration. Similar comparable caecal pH was also recorded when 0.03 % fat coated SB (Smulikowska et al, 2009) and 0.1 % SB together with essential oil (Cerisuelo et al, 2014) were used in broiler ration.…”