Article info.

ABSTRACT

Received 31 Jan 2018
Revised 05 Jul 2018

Accepted 30 Nov 2018

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of adding to the diet two organic acid products (Menacid and Poulacid) given separately, or as a mixture on growth performance and health status of Tam Hoang chickens (n=720). The experiment was conducted for 12 weeks with 6 treatments in a 6*2 factorial design and 3 replications. The first and second factors were organic acid supplement and gender (male or female). The treatments included the control:basal diet (BD) without any organic acid product, M0.8:BD with 0.8g Menacid/kg feed, M1.0:BD with 1.0gMenacid/kg feed,P1.0:BD with 1g Poulacid acid/kg feed, P1.5:BD with 1.5g Poulacid/kg feed, and MP:BD with 0.5g Menacid and 1g Poulacid acid/kg feed. Results showed that average daily gain of chickens overall 1 to 12 weeks fed M0.8 and MP were better than the control; average feed intake did not differ among the treatments. Feed conversion over the 12-week period was better for the M0.8 treatment compared to the control, but the other treatments did not differ from the control. Lactobacilli and Salmonella spp. were not detected in chicken feces either at 42^nd or 70^th days of age. Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia coli were reduced in all supplemented treatments, so morbidity (13.3 - 19.1%) and mortality (10-15%) were high. It was concluded that there was an apparent improvement in growth rate (8%), linked with a reduction in pathogenic bacteria (E. coli and C. perfringens) in the feces when chickens were supplemented with a commercial source of organic acids.

Keywords

Clostridium perfringens, E. coli, Lactobacillus, organic acid, Salmonella spp., Tam Hoang chicken

Cited as: Thuy, N.T., Phung, N.T.M., Ty, L.T., Bich, N.T.H. and An, T.V., 2018. Effect of organic acid products on growth performance and intestine health of Tam Hoang chicken. Can Tho University Journal of Science. 54(8): 17-23.