DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION OF LAURIC ACID ON PERFORMANCE AND GUT HEALTH OF BROILER CHICKEN
Loading...
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
A biological trial was carried out to evaluate the effect of different sources of lauric acid on performance, gut health and economics of broiler chicken. Two hundred and fifty two, day-old, sexed broiler chicks were randomly divided into seven homogeneous experimental groups with six replicates for each treatment, each containing six chicks. The diet of control group (T1) consisted of basal diet without Antibiotic Growth Promoter (AGP) and (T2) with oxytetracycline as AGP at 50 g/ton. The dietary treatment groups consisted of basal diet with lauric acid (T3) at 500 g/ton; monolaurin (T4) at 300 g/ton; palm kernel oil (T5) supplying lauric acid at 500 g/ton; virgin coconut oil (T6) supplying lauric acid at 500 g/ton and lauric acid at 500 g/ton, caprylic and capric acids (T7) (based on caprylic and capric acid content similar to T6th level). The trial was carried out in deep litter pen for 35 days with standard managemental conditions.
Supplementation of different sources of lauric acid had statistically comparable performance in terms of body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio to that of the birds supplemented with antibiotic (oxytetracycline at 50 g/ton).
In slaughter parameters, eviscerated carcass weight was significantly (P<0.05) higher in group T6 (65.90%), ready-to-cook weight was significantly (P<0.05) higher in groups T6 and T4 (70.26% and 70.19%, respectively) and giblets weight was significantly higher in group T2 (4.68%) than the birds fed without oxytetracycline or other sources of lauric acid. However, heart, liver, gizzard, abdominal fat yield and intestinal length (cm) did not differ significantly among the treatment groups (T1 to T7).