Influence of organic acids on performance and intestinal morphology of broilers challenged with water contaminated with excreta

Abstract

The aim of this research will be to evaluate the use of organic acids in isolated-protected form and/or as a blend, replacing growth-promoting antibiotics in broiler diets on the performance and intestinal morphology of broilers experimentally challenged with contaminated drinking water with reused poultry litter. For this, 900 Ross male 1-day-old male chicks will be used, distributed in a completely randomized design with six treatments and five replicates. The treatments will consist of: T1 - Negative control - Basal ration (RB); T2 - Positive control - RB with inclusion of antibiotics; T3 - RB with inclusion of butyric acid protected with glycerin; T4 - RB with inclusion of a blend of lactic acid, formic acid and cinnamaldehyde; T5 - RB with inclusion of butyric acid protected with glycerin + blend of lactic acid, formic acid and cinnamaldehyde. In the period from 1 to 21 and 1 to 42 days of age, the performance of the poultry will be evaluated through the average weight gain (AWG), average feed intake (AFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), viability (VB) and efficiency index productive (42 days old). For morphometric analysis of the small intestine, at 21 and 42 days of age, segments of the duodenum and jejunum of six birds will be collected per treatment. To evaluate the quality of the poultry litter will be measured pH and humidity of nine points in the boxes. The data will be submitted to analysis of variance by the MIXED procedure and, when there is a significant effect, the means will be compared by the Tukey test with 5% of significance.