US EPA

1457646 

Journal Article 

Effects of butyric acid glycerides and antibiotic growth promoter on the performance and intestinal histomorphometry of broiler chickens 

Sayrafi, R; Soltanalinejad, F; Shahrooz, R; Rahimi, S 

2011 

Yes 

Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
ISSN: 1459-0255 

9 

3-4 

285-288 

English 

WOS:000297447200059 

An experiment was conducted to determine the influence of an organic acid (butyric acid glycerides, Baby c4*) as substitute for antibiotic growth promoters on the growth performance and histomorphometrical parameters of the small intestine of broiler chickens. One hundred and forty four I day old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to one of three dietary treatments for 6 wk and each treatment contained four replicates (12 birds each). Dietary treatments were as follow: 1) control (basal diet), 2) basal diet plus bacitracin methylene disalicyate and 3) basal diet plus butyric acid glycerides. Broiler performance including average body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were evaluated. At the end of the experiment, small intestine segments were sampled and histological laboratory methods containing fixation, dehydration, clearing and paraffin embedding were used. Sections stained with hematoxylin-eosin for light microscopy evaluation and the height and width of villi and depth of crypts were measured. The results showed that body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were not statistically affected by dietary treatments (p>0.05). However, at the end of the experiment, chicks fed diets included antibiotic showed better performance than that of the other treatments, and the control birds were intermediate (p>0.05). The addition of antibiotic increased the villus height in duodenum compared with other treatments (P<0.00). There was no significant difference between dietary treatments regarding villi width (p>0.05). The duodenal crypt depth was increased by antibiotic and butyric acid compared with control (P<0.01). The results of this study indicated that butyric acid could not perform as growth promoter. 

Butyric acid; antibiotic; performance; small intestine histomorphometry; broiler chickens