Effects of Dietary Acetic Acid on Intestinal Microbiota, Serum Components, Internal Organs and Performance of Broilers

Abstract

An experiment has been conducted to evaluate the impacts of acetic acid on gut microflora, blood chemicals, and productive traits of broiler chickens. A total 270 day-old Ross 308 chicks were randomly divided into 6 treatments. Each treatment consists of 45 birds and three replicates of 15 birds per replicate. From day one, birds were fed either a corn-soybean meal basal diet supplemented with different levels of diluted acetic acid (5%) (0, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 10 percent of as fed basis diet). Four birds from each pen (12 per treatment) were randomly selected for slaughter and collection of blood samples and microbial study at day 42. There were no significant effects of experimental treatments on feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and mortality of birds (P>0.05). Relative weight of internal organs was not affected by dietary acetic acid. Acetic acid at the level of 8% significantly increased the blood urea, but other serum components did not influenced by addition of acetic acid to the ration. Unexpectedly, total counts of bacteria at 8 and 10 percent of acetic acid have been sharply increased which might be due to resistance of some bacteria to overuse of this organic acid.