Dietary supplementation with acidifiers improves the growth performance, meat quality and intestinal health of broiler chickens

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to study the effects of dietary supplementation with acidifiers on the growth performance, meat quality, and intestinal health of broiler chickens. A total of 648 male Arbor Acres broiler chickens at 1 d old were randomly divided into 6 groups, and each group consisted of 6 replicates with 18 broilers per replicate. The dietary treatments were as follows: negative control (NC, the basal diet), NC + antibiotic (enramycin, 8 mg/kg, positive control [PC]), NC + phosphoric acid (PA, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 g/kg), and NC + lactic acid (LA, 0.3 g/kg). The feeding trial lasted for 42 d. The results showed that the feed-to-gain ratio of the NC + acidifier groups was lower than that of the NC and PC groups from 1 to 42 d ( P < 0.05). Compared with the values in the NC group, the pH of breast muscle was significantly higher in the NC + PA (0.2 g/kg) and LA (0.3 g/kg) groups ( P < 0.05), and the cooking loss was lower in the breast muscle of the NC + PA (0.1 g/kg) and LA (0.3 g/kg) groups ( P < 0.05). In addition, the shear force of the breast muscle and thigh muscle and the pH value in the crop, gizzard and duodenum of the antibiotic and acidifier groups were significantly decreased ( P < 0.05). Moreover, the trypsin, chymotrypsin, and lipase activities of the duodenum in the NC + PA (0.2 and 0.3 g/kg) groups, as well as the villus height-to-crypt depth (VH:CD) ratio of the duodenum in the NC + PA (0.1 g/kg) group was significantly greater ( P < 0.05) compared with those in the NC group. Meanwhile, the number of total aerobic bacteria, Escherichia coli and Salmonella in the cecum of the NC + PA (0.1 g/kg) and LA (0.3 g/kg) groups were decreased ( P < 0.05). Collectively, diet supplementation with acidifiers could improve the growth performance, meat quality, and intestinal health of broilers, in which the effects of PA (0.1 g/kg and 0.2 g/kg) are better than the other supplementations.

Effects of Bacillus licheniformis on Growth Performance, Diarrhea Incidence, Antioxidant Capacity, Immune Function, and Fecal Microflora in Weaned Piglets

“…Antibiotic resistance has an undesirable effect on people other than the immediate consumer of the antibiotic [4]. Several research studies on promising alternatives to antibiotics are currently being developed in livestock, such as probiotics [5], acidifiers [6], plant extracts [7], and so on.…”

Butyric and Citric Acids and Their Salts in Poultry Nutrition: Effects on Gut Health and Intestinal Microbiota

“…They are used as an antibiotic alternative that can alter the physiology and lead to the death of pathogenic microorganisms in animals, including poultry [5,6]. Various literatures reveal that antibiotics have better positive effects in modulating metabolism, improving weight gain, feed efficiency and controlling diseases in poultry production [7,8]. However, their continued use in animal nutrition developed antibiotic resistance and drug residues, which resulted in global public health issues and exacerbating poverty in the 21st century [9][10][11].…”

“…[27] and salmonella typhimurium-related diseases [29,30]. A meta-analytic study of organic acids confirmed that blends of two or more specific organic acids improved performance, immunity and welfare of birds better than any acid achieved alone [4,8]. For example, Ndelekwute et al studied the effects of four different acidifiers on gut performance and found that organic acids could be used in diets for broilers [31].…”

Bacillus subtilis ANSB168 Producing d-alanyl-d-alanine Carboxypeptidase Could Alleviate the Immune Injury and Inflammation Induced by Ochratoxin A

“…Except for the crop and gizzard, the pH of poultrys’ digestive tract is above 5.0 [ 52 ]. In the present study, the optimal pH for DacA and DacB degrading OTA was between 6.5 and 7.5, which happened to be the range of pH of the small intestine.…”