Dietary supplementation of acetylsalicylic acid improved growth, livability and egg production performance in two breeds of commercial layers

Abstract

Heat stress is a silent threat to the well-being of chickens with negative impacts on their health, performance and productivity in the tropics. This has therefore, necessitated its control among the flocks of poultry. Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is commonly used to improve the performance and well-being of birds under heat stress but its effects on the production performance of Isa brown (IB) and Harco black (HB) breeds are yet to be examined. Thisstudy was therefore, conducted to unravel the effect of ASA on these birds' performance. One hundred and ninety-two birds comprising 96 IB and 96 HB layers were randomly allotted to four treatment diets supplemented with 0, 0.025, 0.050 and 0.075% of ASA at 48 birds/treatment in four replicates of 12 birds each. Feed intake, weight change, mortality, hen-day egg production (HDEP) and hen-housed egg production (HHEP) were determined. Results showed that IB recorded a higher weight change (806.83±33.45g) than the HB (722.8±35.91g) breed. Dietary ASA supplementation at 0.075% produced the highest weight change (808.52±242.73g) relative to the control (672.92±65.04g). The ASA level at 0.050% produced the lowest mortality (2.46±0.01%). Conclusively, the use of ASA in the diets improved weight change in the birds. The IB breed had a better livability (95.70%) than the HB breed (91.80%). The ASA at 0.050% conferred the best livability (97.54%) on the birds. Also, the use of ASA significantly improved total egg production. The ASA supplementationhad a better ameliorative effect on HB than the IB breed.