GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo) POULTS FED BUTYRIC ACID SUPPLEMENTED DIETS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO ANTIBIOTICS GROWTH PROMOTERS

Abstract

The effects of butyric acid supplemented diets on growth performance as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters was examined in a 28-day experiment using one hundred and sixty (160) (one-day old) Nicholas turkey poults. The experimental design was a Completely Randomised Block Design. Poults were brooded for 7 days, after which they were allotted to 4 dietary treatments with 5 replicates of 8 birds per replicate. The experimental feeds consist of four diets; treatment 1 was the Corn-SBM diet (basal diet/negative control); treatment 2 was the positive control, consisting of the basal diet and antibiotics (Oxytetracycline hydrochloride at 0.02g/1000g feed), treatment 3 had the basal diet and 0.2% butyric acid, while treatment 4 was the basal diet and 0.4% butyric acid. The inclusion of butyric acid to the corn-soya based diets did not positively affect the final weight and weight gain of birds at the end of 56 days of the feeding trial.