Feeding malic acid to chickens at slaughter age benefits poultry production and microbial safety in regard to Campylobacter

Abstract

Background Chicken meat has become popular for consumption worldwide. However, chicken flocks suffer the Campylobacter infection during the rearing period, which allows chicken meat products act as a vehicle for transmitting this pathogen through the food chain and bring great health and economic burden to the public. Malic acid is a dicarboxylic organic acid with antimicrobial activity, the application of malic acid during food animal rearing period also found could improve the performance of animals and the quality of their products. This study applied malic acid to chicken flocks and evaluated its potential benefits on the poultry production and microbial safety. Results In Experiment 1, AA broilers and partridge chicken were provided with the malic acid-supplemented drinking water for three weeks, although the Campylobacter carriages were found decreased by 0.91–0.98 log after the first week of use (P < 0.05). However, this effect was not consistent, significant decontamination could not be found in the second and the third week of application. Thus, in Experiment 2, the malic acid-supplemented drinking water was used for five days to flocks at slaughter age, the Campylobacter carriage was found decreased by 1.05–1.55 log (P < 0.05), suggesting an effective reduction effect exist. Malic acid has no adverse effects on chicken performance, including body weight, intestinal indices and microflora. However, the meat quality of AA broilers was found to be promoted, the moisture increased by 5.12% − 5.92% (P < 0.05), and the fat decreased by 1.60% (P < 0.05). In Experiment 3, the malic acid-supplemented drinking water was provided to AA broilers which were suffering from respiratory disease. The results showed that the mortality rate of malic acid treated group was consistently lower than that of the control group during the experimental period, and the total mortality was decreased from 52% in the control group, to 32% in malic acid treated group. Conclusions Our results suggest that feeding malic acid to flocks could decrease the contamination of Campylobacter while also benefit chicken farming, and is worthy of application to promote safe development of the poultry production and its products.

Short Chain Organic Acids in Poultry: Literature Review

“…Supplementation with malic acid via drinking water for broiler chickens suffering from respiratory diseases showed a surprising result, improving survival rates by 20% in the treated group compared to the control group (REN et al, 2020).…”

“…Even malic acid (5 and 10%) proved to be efficient in preventing biofilm by Salmonella enteritidis at 12°C (MENEZES; MORAES, 2017). Ren et al (2020) observed that drinking water supplemented with malic acid for five days for slaughter-age birds reduced Campylobacter excretion by 1.05-1.55 log, suggesting that there is an effective reducing effect on the excretion of microorganism. Malic acid had no adverse effects on broiler performance, including body weight, intestinal indices, and intestinal microflora.…”

“…Malic acid is an organic dicarboxylic acid with antimicrobial activity (OLAIMAT et al, 2018;REN et al, 2020). It can be produced industrially and has the advantage of not having a pollutant or residual effect and being little toxic (CHI et al, 2016).…”

“…It can be produced industrially and has the advantage of not having a pollutant or residual effect and being little toxic (CHI et al, 2016). Malic acid is commonly recognized as a mild-tasting acid and has wide application in the food industry (CHI et al, 2016), which allows its application in animal feed to improve the performance of animals and the quality of their products (REN et al, 2020), without prejudice to feed palatability.…”