Dietary supplementation of formic acid and thymol as an antimicrobial alternative improved production, gut health and carcass traits in turkeys

Champati, A., Bhanja, S.K., Yadav, A.S., Rokade, J.J., Divya, Biswas, A., Saha, S.K., Singh, M., Agrawal, R.K. and Nayak, N. 2024. Dietary supplementation of formic acid and thymol as an antimicrobial alternative improved production, gut health and carcass traits in turkeys. Indian Journal of Poultry Science 59(1): 15–21.

The consumers are becoming more health conscious and demand for safer food products, alternatives such as organic acid and essential oils are replacing the antibiotic growth promoters (AGP). The study evaluated the efficacy of dietary formic acid (FA) and thymol (Th) on growth, gut morphology, immunity and carcass traits in turkey birds. The CARI VIRAT turkey poults (n=256) were randomly distributed into eight groups having 4 replicates each of 8 birds per replicate: T1(Basal diet: BD), T2 (BD+AGP), T3 (BD+FA 2.5ml/kg), T4 (BD+FA 5 ml/kg), T5 (BD+FA 7.5ml/kg), T6 (BD+Th 120mg/kg), T7 (BD+Th 240mg/kg) and T8 (BD+Th 360mg/kg). The final body weight and cumulative gain and FCR were significantly better for birds under supplementation whereas the mean feed intake across treatments did not show any significant variation. The bursa was significantly heavier in T5 group, whereas T8 group significantly showed best humoral and cell mediated immune responses. The FA and Th supplemented groups had significantly improved villi height, crypt depth and their ratio over the control. The T5 group birds recorded significant reduction in total plate count and Coliforms while depicting increment in Lactobacillus count. Also, administration of FA and Th improved the cut-up parts, giblet and dressing yield over and above the control. From the study it's concluded that, formic acid 7.5ml/kg and thymol 360 mg/kg supplementations could potentially replace the AGPs in turkey with improved performance, immunity, gut health and carcass yields.