Indian Journal of Poultry Science

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of acidifier and sanitizer treated drinking water (ring well water) on the performance of broiler chicken. One hundred and forty four day-old commercial broiler chicks (Cobb-400 Y) having similar body weight from a single hatch were procured and chicks were randomly distributed into four groups viz, T₀ (control offered untreated drinking water), T₁(0.01% commercial brand of acidifier), T₂(0.01% commercial brand of sanitizer) and T₃(combination of acidifier and sanitizer at the rate each of 0.05 ml per litre of drinking water- 0.01%) comprising 36 chicks in each groups. All the birds under control and treatment groups were offered ad libitum drinking water and feed throughout the experimental period of six weeks under uniform managemental condition. The mean weekly and cumulative feed intake did not differ significantly between different treatment groups under study. The final body weight was significantly (Pd”0.05) highest in T₃ (1980.27 g) followed by T₁ (1963.05 g), T₀ (1850.81 g) and T₂ (1834.58 g). At the end of the experiment, the overall FCRs of each of the groups were calculated and found that T₃ group showed significantly (Pd”0.05) best FCR value of 1.72 followed by T₁ (1.73), T₀ (1.83) and T₂ (1.86). The Broiler Performance Efficiency Index (BPEI) was highest in T₃ (115.13) followed by T₁ (110.31), T₂ (99.57) and T₀ (91.78) group. The livability percentage was found to be 100 per cent in T₂ and T₃ group, whereas it was 97.2 per cent in T₁ group and 91.6 per cent in T₀ group. The cost of production per broiler was higher by about Rs1.00 in T₂ and T₃ as compared to T₀. However, gross profit per broiler was higher by Rs 11.83 in T₃ and Rs 10.56 in T₁ as compared to T₀ The study revealed that there was increased body weight, improved FCR, higher BPEI, cent per cent livability and increased gross profit per broiler in birds offered ring well water treated with the combination of acidifier and sanitizer.