EFFECT OF ACETIC ACID ON BROILER CHICKS GROWTH PERFORMANCE

Résumé

This study was conduct to investigate the effect of drinking water supplemented with different dosage of acetic acid (AA) at varied frequency of administration on growth performance of broiler chickens at the early growth phase. 300 Arbor acre broiler chicks were assigned to 6 groups in a completely randomized design experiment with a 2 by 3 factorial arrangement and 5 replicates of 10 chicks each. The 6 groups were; T1 and T4 (0ml/L AA/Enrofloxacin group), T2 (5ml/L AA twice weekly), T3 (5ml/L AA thrice weekly), T5 (10ml/L AA twice weekly), T6 (10ml/L AA thrice weekly. The AA administration began on the 2nd day of the chicks‘ life and was included in the drinking water on selected days. Growth performance was evaluated on parameters like weight gain, feed intake, water intake and Feed Conversion Ratio. The data collected were subjected to One-way Analysis of Variance via a General Linear Model
procedure using Minitab 17 and means were separated using Tukey‘s test of the same statistical software. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) among all the 6 groups but when considering the main effect of AA dosage and the frequency of administration, only the dosage had significant effect (p<0.05) on the final weight and water intake of the birds, as the highest values were obtained in the 10ml/L AA group and both AA groups respectively. Results from this study shows that inclusion of AA in drinking water of broilers at the early growth phase is a promising alternative to antibiotics growth promoter.