Abstract
The experiment evaluated the influence of isolated or associated phytogenic additives (PA) and organic acids (OA) on nutrient digestibility, performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. Two experiments were conducted in a completely randomized design with a 2 × 2 + 1 factorial arrangement of treatments (with or without PA × with or without OA + antibiotic performance enhancer and anticoccidial). In the first experiment, two metabolic tests were conducted to determine the metabolizability coefficients of the nutrients of starter and growth diets. In the second experiment, 2520 one-day-old chicks were housed in 40 experimental units to evaluate the performance and carcass characteristics. The phytogenic additives and organic acids, isolated or associated, improve the nutrient digestibility of the diet and replace the growth- promoting antibiotics. The use of organic acids isolated or associated with phytogenic additives in broiler diets improves broiler performance in comparison with free antibiotic performance enhancer at 42 days of age. Isolated or associated phytogenic additives and organic acids provided better carcass characteristics.
Highlights
The selection of premature birds and the major housing density has intensified health problems and denouncements of slaughterhouses, reflecting the increased use of antibiotic performance enhancer (APE), and the therapeutic use of anticoccidial and chemotherapy
Phytogenic additives (PA) from plant extracts are an alternative to APE because they promote higher nutrient digestibility, increase digestive enzyme activity and gastric and pancreatic juice secretion, protect the intestinal microvilli and improve bird performance by antimicrobial activity (Hernández et al, 2004; Toledo et al, 2007)
Undissociated organic acids can penetrate the lipid membrane of the bacterial cell and decrease intracellular pH, which leads to death (Ricke, 2003), in addition to stimulating pancreatic secretion and providing better intestinal villus integrity (Dibner & Buttin, 2002)
Summary
The selection of premature birds and the major housing density has intensified health problems and denouncements of slaughterhouses, reflecting the increased use of antibiotic performance enhancer (APE), and the therapeutic use of anticoccidial and chemotherapy. Phytogenic additives (PA) from plant extracts are an alternative to APE because they promote higher nutrient digestibility, increase digestive enzyme activity and gastric and pancreatic juice secretion, protect the intestinal microvilli and improve bird performance by antimicrobial activity (Hernández et al, 2004; Toledo et al, 2007). Another alternative to APE are organic acids (OA), which have shown positive results in poultry production, for reducing the intestinal pH and bacterial growth intolerant to pH changes (Pirgozliev et al, 2008; Ao et al, 2009), providing better intestinal health for the bird to obtain maximum nutrient absorption. There are conflicting results regarding the use of acidifiers in poultry and, according to Hernández et al (2006), these effects depend on the chemical form of the acid, pKa values, bacterial species to be destroyed, animal species and the site of action of acids
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