Abstract

Organic acids such as butyrate are considered potential alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters. The efficacy of butyric acid, salinomysin sodium and litter moisture on performance and number of oocysts in broiler chickens were tested in this study. The experiment was a factorial design, with/without butyric acid (0/5 and 0%), with/without salinomysin sodium (0/3 and 0%) and 2 levels of moisture (33 and 77%) of the litter of experimental pens. Eight hundred 1-day-old male broiler chickens (Ross 308) were purchased from a local hatchery. The birds randomly allocated to eight treatment groups of 100 birds each. Each group was further divided into 4 replicates of 25 birds each. The data obtained were analyzed by SAS (9.1) with a general linear models procedure. The obtained results showed that no significantly difference were observed in feed intake in starter and grower, weight gain in starter, grower and total periods, feed conversion ratio in starter, grower and total period and oocysts count in weeks 3, 5 and 6 (p > 0.05). Significantly difference were observed in feed intake in finisher, weight gain in finisher, feed conversion ratio in finisher and oocysts numbers in weeks 2 and 4 (p < 0.05). Base on this experiment results, the main effects of most parameters had no significant efficiency (p > 0.05). The interactive action between butyric acid, salinomysin sodium and litter moisture was significant in some parameters (p < 0.05). It is concluded that butyric acid and salinomysin sodium did not have clear positive effects on performance of broiler chickens.

Key words: Organic acid, oocyst, anticoccidial, performance, broiler chicken.