Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Butyric Acid on Growth Performance and Intestinal Microbial Load in Broiler Chickens

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of using butyric acid (BA) in place of antibiotic growth promoter (AGP) on performance and intestinal microflora in broiler chickens. Two hundred (200) day-old broiler chicks were housed and distributed randomly into four groups containing five replicates of 10 chicks in each replicate (4 treatments×5 replicates). The experiment had a randomized design. Four experimental diets T1, T2, T3 and T4 were formulated to contain no additive, Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate (BMD) at 20 mg/kg diet and BA at 0.3 and 0.4%, respectively. Body weight gain (g) increased (P<0.05) by the feeding of diets containing different levels of BA, but feed intake (g), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and mortality (%) did not differ significantly (P>0.05). Significant reduction was observed in coliforms and Lactobacillus counts in cecal contents (28 and 42 d) and excreta (42 d), whereas, total plate counts (TPC) at 42 d were significantly reduced in BA supplemented groups as compared to other groups. From the results, it can be concluded that, BA could be a good alternative to AGP for growth performance and improving gut microbial status in broiler chickens.