Effect of organic acids and essential oils on growth performance of commercial broiler in Bangladesh

A total of 990 Cobb 500 straight run day old chicks were housed on March 18, 2016 and reared up to April 1, 2016 to examine the effect of organic acids and essential oils on growth performances and health status at a village farm in Companigonj upazila under the district of Noakhali in Bangladesh. Body weight at 7 days of age and at 14 days of age were significantly higher for feed type two (159.99±0.16 g and 442.22±0.38 g, respectively). Average daily body weight gain at 8 to 14 days of age in feed type one was higher (41.09±0.03 g/d/b) than feed type two but higher feed conversion was recorded with feed type two (1.141) for the broiler birds of 14 days old. This study demonstrated that organic acids and essential oils supplementation in the broiler ration (feed type two) might help to increase the body weight and decrease mortality rate up to age of 14 days. It also revealed that feed to meat conversion might be increased through organic acids and essential oils supplementation. But to learn about the individual effect of organic acids preparation or essential oils preparations further study designing two feed types with similar nutrition in which one will be supplemented with organic acids and the other one with essential oils supplementation would be worthwhile.

Published with open access at journalbinet.com EISSN: 2312-7945, © Islam et al. (2016), Research paper proliferation of resistant bacteria via the food chain. So, to minimize the risk of spreading antibiotic resistance from animals to humans via food chain the need for alternative strategies aroused and the alternative might be organic acids and their salts (Adil et al., 2011). Organic acids can be used as alternatives to antibiotics and these materials have growth promoting properties (Patten and Waldroup 1988). Organic acid supplementation improve digestibility of protein and minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc and decrease colonization of pathogens and production of toxic metabolites and also serve as substrates in the intermediary metabolism (Kirchgessner and Roth 1988). Essential oils are a mixture of various compounds (mainly terpenes and terpene derivatives) (Başer and Demirci, 2007) which obtained from plants are concentrated hydrophobic liquids contains volatile aromatic compounds (Mathe, 2009). The present research work was done with the objectives to observe the effect of organic acids and essential oils on health and growth performances of commercial broiler chicken.

II. Materials and Methods
A total of 990 Cobb 500 straight run day old chicks were housed on March 18, 2016 and reared up to April 1, 2016 to examine the effect of organic acids and essential oils at a village farm in Companigonj upazila under the district of Noakhali in Bangladesh. Average day old body weight of chicks was 31.25 g per bird and their parent stock's age was 26 weeks. An open side gable type broiler house with pacca floor and corrugated iron sheet made roof was used. Rice husk was used as litter materials. From the very first day, day old chicks were divided into two part in the same house. For feed type one a total of 500 day old chicks and for feed type two 490 day old chicks were housed. Individual weight was taken at 7 days of age and at 14 days of age. Same brooding and rearing environment was provided for both groups of birds. Two types of feed were used in two different groups of birds from the very first day and continued up to 14 days of age. Electric brooders were used. Two vaccines like Newcastle and Gumboro were administered as per manufacturer's instructions. Same management was practiced in both part of the house. Only feed formulation was different. For part one feed type one and for part two feed type two were used.

Parameters
Feed ). At the present study we found higher average daily body weight gain for the birds fed feed with organic acids and essential oils supplementations at day 1 to day 7. Moreover, Khattak et al. (2014) observed, the body weight gain with positive effects on feed to gain ratio, when a blend of essential oils from basil, caraway, laurel, lemon, oregano, sage, tea and thyme were added in a diet meeting the nutrient requirements of broilers.

Body weight at 14 days of age and ADG at 8 to 14:
Body weight at 14 days of age was significantly affected by the feed type. In case of feed type two higher (442.22±0.38 g) body weight at 14 days of age were recorded (Table 01). However, Kopecky et al. (2012) found significant increase in average body weight (P<0.05) in 21 and 28 day of fattening when citric acid supplementation was done in the broiler diet. Average daily body weight gain at 8 to 14 days of age was significantly affected by feed type. Diet supplemented with organic acids and essential oils showed lower ADG than feed type one (41.09±0.03 g/d/b). Some researchers found essential oils as the growth stimulator in broiler birds (Cross et al., 2002;Bampidis et al., 2005).

IV. Conclusion
In conclusion, this study demonstrated that organic acids and essential oils supplementation in the broiler ration might help to increase the body weight and decrease mortality rate up to age of 14 days. It also revealed that feed to meat conversion might be increased through organic acids and essential oils supplementation. But to learn about the individual effect of organic acids preparation or essential oils preparations further study designing two feed types with similar nutrition in which one will be supplemented with organic acids and the other one with essential oils supplementation would be worthwhile.