Comparison of the effects of different acidifiers on performance, carcass characteristics, and immune system of Broiler chickens

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

Vahid mohammadi ¹

Seyed Abdollah Hosseini ²

Amirhossein Alizadeh Ghamsari ²

Hosna Hajati ²

Seyyed Adel Moftakharzadeh ²

Muhammad Ali Behrouzi lak ²

¹ Poultry Nutrition, Animal Science Research Institute, Karaj, Iran

² National Institute of Animal Sciences Research

10.22067/ijasr.2026.97028.1287

Abstract

Title: Comparison of the effects of different acidifiers on performance, carcass characteristics and immune response of Broiler Chickens
Introduction and Objective: The need of the Iranian poultry industry for acidifiers is estimated at about 5 thousand tons per year, of which about 65 percent is currently supplied by Iranian manufacturers and the rest is imported into the country at a price of approximately $2 thousand per ton of product. This is while the potential of Iranian manufacturers is sufficient to cover this entire need, and if this is realized, foreign exchange savings of about $3.5 million will be achieved for the country. Therefore, the present study was conducted to compare the use of different acidifiers (Iranian and Foreign) on growth performance, carcass traits, and immune system of broiler chickens.
Materials and Methods: In this experiment, 625 Broiler Chickens of the Ross 308 strain were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments and five replications. The experimental treatments included 1- control (without acidifier), 2- ADIMIX acidifier (Based on butyric acid salt), 3- Iranian acidifier (Including formic, acetic and lactic acids), 4- Iranian acidifier (a combination of formic, propionic, citric and butyric acids), 5- Iranian acidifier (Based on a combination of acetic, propionic and formic acids and their salts), 1 gr per 1 kg of diet. The experimental groups will be similar in terms of nutrients and will be regulated according to the recommendations of the strain breeding guide in three starters, grower, and finisher periods, and will be freely available to the birds from the age of 1 to 42 days. At the end of each period, the chicks of each replicate were weighed in groups and three hours after starvation, and the amount of feed consumpion in each replicate was also measured. To investigate the effects of experimental diets on blood immune parameters, five milliliters of blood were collected from one birds of each experimental unit at the age of 40 days. At the end of the experimental period, two birds from each replicate were slaughtered and carcass weight and relative organ weight were measured. The experimental data were statistically analyzed using SAS software (version 9.1) and one-way analysis of variance, and the least squares mean of the treatments was examined at a significance level of five percent.
Results and Discussion: Feed intake between the different treatments was statistically similar in all rearing periods. However, the data of independent comparisons the control (without acidifier) compared to the other treatments (with acidifier) in the finisher period and the rearing total showed a significant trend. Analysis of the comparison of treatments in relation to the weight gain showed that there was a significant difference between the treatments only in the starter period (P<0.05). In the same period (starter) comparison of weight gain data indicated that the birds of the control group had the lowest weight gain compared to the other groups (P<0.05). Weight gain between the control birds and the other groups was different during the experimental period (1 to 42 days) (P<0.05). The feed conversion ratio between the experimental treatments was significant only in the starter and period total (P<0.05). Analysis of feed conversion ratio comparison between the control group and other treatments showed that there was a significant difference between the birds in the control group and other treatments in all three rearing periods (starter, grower and finisher) and the period total (1 to 42 days) (P<0.05). However, analysis of independent comparisons between birds fed with foreigner acidifire and birds fed with Iranian acidifires did not show any significant difference in any of the performance traits. The relative breast weight of birds in the control group was significantly different from that of other treatments (P<0.05). No significant differences were observed between the experimental treatments in any of the evaluated immune system. Also, independent comparisons (control with other treatments, and between foreign acidifier with Iranian samples) did not show any differences in immune system.
Conclusion: In this study, diets containing organic acids improved the growth performance of broilers. Considering the lack of difference between Iranian samples and foreign acidifiers, the future of using Iranian acidifiers in poultry nutrition seems promising, especially since this industry is looking to replace antibiotics to improve intestinal health and growth performance.

Keywords

Acidifier

Broiler

Carcass Traits

Immune System

Performance

Subjects

• Poultry Nutrition

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