Study on supplementation of combination of organic acids and essential oils on broiler performance Gole M.A., Manwar S.J., Kawitkar S.B., Khose K.K., Chopde S.V.* Department of Poultry Science, Post Graduate Institute of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Science UniversityNagpur-440001India *Corresponding author: drshitaljawale@gmail.com
Online Published on 21 July, 2022. Abstract Gole, M.A., Manwar, S.J., Kawitkar, S.B., Khose, K.K. and Chopde, S.V. 2022. Study on supplementation of combination of organic acids and essential oils on broiler performance. Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology, 22: 187-197. The natural feed additives instead of antibiotic growth promoter in poultry diet is a need of the hour. The different mechanisms of organic acids and essential oils may create the possibility to cooperate with each other in the animal and subsequently enhance the performance. Hence, the study was planned to find out a suitable combination of organic acid and essential oil to improve growth performance in broiler chickens. The experiment was conducted, on 240 broiler chicks for a period of 6 weeks. The chicks are divided in 4 groups having 3 replicates of 20 birds each. The birds in control group (A) offered basal diet. The birds in dietary treatment group B, C and D offered basal diet with 200 mg/ kg cinnamon essential oil and 1% propionic acid, basal diet with 200 mg/ kg peppermint essential oil and 1% sorbic acid and diet with 200 mg/ kg clove essential oil and 1% fumaric acid, respectively. The performance of all the treatment groups was assessed with respect to the different performance parameters. Use of combination of essential oils (200 mg/kg feed) and organic acids (1%) resulted in improvement in growth performance and gut health in broilers. The combination of cinnamon essential oil with propionic acid used in the study improved overall performance of birds compared to other treatments and could be a promising strategy as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters in broiler production. Top Keywords Broiler chicken, Essential oils, Organic acids, Performance. Top |