Abstract
Problem statement: The aim of this study was to investigated the effects of adding citric acid and microbial phytase supplementation (Natuphos ® ) on growth performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens fed corn soybean meal base diets. Approach: The experiment included nine treatments with 10 birds in each replicate using a 3×3 factorial design for two main factors of citric acid (0, 3 and 6%) and three phytase enzyme (0, 500 and 1000 IU kg −1 ). The diets were formulated based upon corn-soybean meal 7 to 21 and 22 to 42 day periods. Results: Using different levels of citric acid in diets had no effect on internal organs (except relative heart weight), whereas, diets containing 6% citric acid decreased feed intake, body weight gain and carcass yield (p<0.05) and improved feed conversion ratio and organs relative weight. Also, microbial phytase caused increase in feed intake, weight gain and relative neck weight (p<0.05). Conclusion: Depression of performance was differently affected by citric acid levels. Also, there was an additive effect between microbial phytase and citric acid.
Highlights
Phosphorus (P) is an essential mineral for broilers metabolism and skeletal development
The data main effects indicated that the addition of 6% Citric Acid (CA) caused significant decrease (p
Diets supplemented with 1000 IU kg−1 Microbial Phytase (MP) improved BWG significantly (p
Summary
Phosphorus (P) is an essential mineral for broilers metabolism and skeletal development. With calcium it has a main role in the formation and maintenance of bone (Underwood and Suttle, 1999). Phytate-P is largely unavailable for utilization by monogastric animals, such as poultry, due to a lack of effective endogenous phytase enzyme that aids in digestion of the phytic acid complex (Waldroup et al, 2000). Exogenous phytase supplementation of broiler diets has been shown to effectively increase the availability of P to the bird and reducing P excretion by liberating phytate bounded P. Exogenous phytase can improve the retention of dietary P and the addition of exogenous phytases to poultry diets improves performance parameters other than those associated with improvement in P utilization (Hajati, 2010)
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