Indian Journal of Animal Research

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Research Article

Indian Journal of Animal Research, volume 55 issue 8 (august 2021) : 894-899

Effect of Medium Chain Fatty Acids as Replacement to Antibiotics in Diets on Growth Performance and Gut Health in Broiler Chicken

Pratik Jadhav1,*, S. Manwar1, K. Khose1, M. Wade1, M. Gole1, G. Langote1
1Department of Poultry Science, Post Graduate Institute of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Akola, Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University, Nagpur-440 006, Maharashtra, India.
Cite article:- Jadhav Pratik, Manwar S., Khose K., Wade M., Gole M., Langote G. (2021). Effect of Medium Chain Fatty Acids as Replacement to Antibiotics in Diets on Growth Performance and Gut Health in Broiler Chicken . Indian Journal of Animal Research. 55(8): 894-899. doi: 10.18805/IJAR.B-4188.

ABSTRACT

Background: Due to wide use of Antibiotic growth promoter builds antibiotic resistance in poultry bird. While attempting to explore potential alternative, medium chain fatty acid (MCFA) can be used due to its unique nutritional, physiological and antimicrobial property. MCFA possess activity to inhibit growth of pathogenic organism and increase the digestibility that boosts the production and growth performance of birds. The present experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of medium chain fatty acids supplementation as replacement to antibiotics in diets on growth performance and gut health in broiler.

Methods: Three hundred, day-old straight-run chicks were randomly distributed into five dietary treatment groups with three replicates in each containing twenty chicks. The five treatments were, control group (T0), basal diet with antibiotic of BMD (bacitracin methylene disalicyclate) group (T1), basal diet with 0.25% lauric acid (T2), basal diet with 0.25% capric acid (T3) and basal diet with 0.25% lauric and 0.25% capric acids (T4).

Result: The birds fed diet containing lauric acid, capric acid or their combination recorded significantly higher (P<0.01) body weight compared to control. The increase in live weight in birds fed lauric acid over control was 4.37%. Likewise, the broilers fed diets with lauric acid singly or along with capric acid recorded significantly higher gain in weights compared to other groups. The feed intake was comparable in all treatment groups. The feed conversion ratio was improved in broilers fed with MCFAs either singly or in dietary combination. The coliform count was numerically reduced, whereas, the total viable count in group fed MCFAs and their combination were substantially reduced.

INTRODUCTION

The demand for human edible protein is increasing globally indicating bright future for poultry production including broiler chickens (Wu et al., 2014). In order to enhance gut health to improve digestion and utilization of nutrients as gut function and health are important for optimum performance of birds. Generally, antibiotic growth promoter as feed additives have widely used in poultry production; this may result in to development of antibiotic resistance and residue in poultry products (Guo et al., 2018; Montoro-Dasi et al., 2020). So many researchers has been tried several herbal products and organic acids to replace antibiotic growth promoter (AGP). Medium chain fatty acids (MCFA; C6-C12) are known to have unique nutritional, physiological and antimicrobial properties (Batovska et al., 2009). MCFA like caproic, caprylic, capric and lauric acids are some of the organic acids that have higher efficacy than short chain fatty acid. Efficacy of organic acids increases along with increase in its carbon atom chain length and the degree of unsaturation (Huyghebaert et al., 2011). As MCFA have ability to cross semipermeable membrane of bacteria in un-dissociated and fat soluble form which enter cytoplasm of bacterial cell and suppress cytoplasmic enzymes and nutrient transport resulting in cellular death (Bergsson et al., 2001). Moreover, the anionic part of dissociated MCFAs intercalate with the bacterial DNA, thereby inhibiting DNA replication and accordingly bacterial growth. Thus, medium chain fatty acid has better effect on growth and bactericidal property. Shilling et al., (2013) reported that lauric acids disrupted the cytoplasm structure of bacterial cells using coconut oil and it’s most active individual fatty acids. Lauric acid was the most inhibitory to Clostridium growth. The medium chain fatty acids are also utilized faster than long-chain fatty acids. Hsiao and Siebert (1999) observed that medium chain fatty acids reduces the abdominal fat and increases breast yield in broilers and in lower levels, these acids may be even utilized as nutrients. A few studies have shown that feeding MCFAs have positive impact on body weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), gut health, immunity and survival rate (Skrivan et al., 2010; Deschepper et al., 2003) of broilers. Thus, considering above facts the present investigation has been designed to appraise the effect of dietary supplementation of medium chain fatty acids as a replacement for antibiotic growth promoters on the performance of broiler chickens.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Birds and experimental design
 
The experiment was carried out on 300 day old Cobb-400 straight run commercial broiler chicks for periods of 42 days from 19th Feb to 3rd April 2019 at Poultry Research and Training Centre (PRTC), Post Graduate Institute of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Akola (MAFSU, Nagpur). 300 day-old chicks were randomly and equally distributed into five treatment groups having three replicates containing 20 chicks in each reared for 6 weeks of age. The birds under control group (T0) offered basal diet (Table 1) as per BIS (2007). The group (T1) offered basal diet with antibiotic growth promoter of BMD group- as Negative control. The group (T2) offered basal diet with 0.25% lauric acid. The group (T3) offered basal diet with 0.25% capric acid. The group (T4) offered basal diet with 0.25% lauric and 0.25% capric acids. The experimental design used for housing the broilers is presented in Table 1. The standard and uniform managemental practices were followed for all treatment groups throughout experimental period. The birds were offered clean and fresh ad-lib drinking water during the course of experiment. Vaccination schedule was carried out with standard protocol. For preparation of experimental diet, the various feed ingredients required for formulating broiler feeds were procured locally from M/s Shrikripa Poultry Feeds, Amravati, Maharashtra. A Lauric acid and capric acid were procured from M/s Jyoti Camporium, Akola, Maharashtra. The proximate analysis of the experimental diets was carried out as per A.O.A.C. (2012). The ingredient and nutrient composition of the experimental diets formulated as per BIS (2007) has been presented in (Table 1).
 

Table 1: Ingredient (%) composition of experimental diets for different phases.


 
Data collection
 
Data was collected on weekly interval by weighing the birds on weekly basis live body weight and replicate wise weight gain was calculated by deducting the weight of the day old chick from that of the current week. The feed intake was determined by subtracting the left-over feed from the feed offered, however feed conversion ratio was calculated as average feed intake divided by average weight gain taking into consideration of mortality, if any. The European Production Efficiency Factor (EPEF) was calculated based on live weight (LW), livability (LA) and slaughter age (SA) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) using formula as described by Marcu et al., (2013).
 

 
Gut health
 
The parameters determined for evaluation of gut health were total viable count and E. coli count in all the treatment groups at 42 days of age. For this, three birds from each treatment group i.e. one bird per replicate were sacrificed and instantaneously a 1 g of ceacal content was collected in sterile glass vial. It was diluted in 9 ml normal saline and then 2 serial dilutions were made for inoculation on the eosin-methylene blue agar plates and incubated for 24 hrs at 37°C. All the bacterial colonies were counted as colony forming units (CFU/g) as per DIFCO (1977). The total viable count was determined as a product of the mean of colonies at particular dilution and dilution factor as per ISO (1995).
 
Statistical analysis
 
The data obtained were statistically analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 22.0 and demonstrated as mean ± SE (standard error). Differences among treatment means were subjected to ANOVA by univariate analysis using general linear model and determined by Duncan’s multiple range test at significance level of P<0.05/0.01.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Weekly live body weight and weight gain
 
The various treatments had significant (P<0.05) effect on mean weekly live body weight and weight gain. The birds offered diet supplemented with lauric acid (T2), capric acid (T3) alone or collectively (T4) had attained higher (P<0.01) live body weights in comparison to control (Table 2). Whereas, antibiotic growth promoter (BMD) group (T2) showed live weights comparable to control group. The percent improvement in final live body weight in broilers fed lauric acid and combination of lauric and capric acid over the control was 4.37 and 3.60%, respectively. The cumulative weight gain in experimental broilers group T2 offered feed having lauric acid alone or in combination with capric acid (experimental group T4) gained significantly higher (P<0.05) weight gain in comparison to other treatment and control groups (Table 2). Further, these observations also matched with the findings Lipinski et al., (2016) who observed improvement in final body weight in turkey poults due to addition of MCFAs. Similarly, Deschepper et al., (2003) observed improved body weight (3.6%) due to inclusion of mixture of MCFA like caproic acid, caprylic acid, capric acid and lauric acid at 1.2 g/kg feed. It is reported that the antimicrobial activity of MCFA lowered the intestinal infection, improved intestinal morphology and resulted into better digestive and absorptive capacities in birds (Batovska et al., 2009; Deschepper et al., 2003). Issac et al., (2013) reported that supplementation of 0.8 to 1.7 g/kg of MCFA resulted in to higher cumulative gain in weight in starter and grower phase.
 

Table 2: Weekly live body weight (g/bird) and Cumulative weekly gain in weights (g/bird) in broilers supplemented with dietary medium chain fatty acids singly or in combination.


 
Cumulative feed consumption
 
The cumulative feed intake during first and second week did not differ among experimental groups. At third week the feed consumption in experimental group T3 fed diet supplemented with capric acid showed highly significant difference (P<0.01) over experimental group T1 diet having BMD. At fourth week, feed intake was comparable among the birds in various experimental groups. At fifth week, birds in experimental group T3 fed capric acid, T2 fed lauric acid and T0 (control) recorded significantly higher (P<0.01) cumulative feed intake than BMD fed group (T1) and MCFAs combination supplemented group (T4). Whereas, during sixth week all MCFA supplemented broilers recorded higher (P<0.05) cumulative feed intake than BMD fed broilers while it was comparable with birds in control group (Table 3). The findings are in agreement with Khatibjoo et al., (2017) who observed that supplementation of medium chain fatty acid has no effect on feed intake. Bhalsing (2018) recorded higher feed intake in birds fed diet supplemented with higher level of lauric acid at 0.75% followed by 0.05% lauric acid, Antibiotic growth promoter and 0.1% lauric acid.
 

Table 3: Cumulative weekly feed consumption (g/bird) in broilers fed MCFAs singly or in combination.


 
FCR
 
Broiler birds given diets with lauric acid alone or in combination with capric acid achieved significantly improvement in cumulative FCR in comparison to control, whereas AGP supplemented group and capric acid added group noted comparable improvement in the cumulative feed conversion ratio than control (Table 4). These observations also matched with the findings Nguyen et al., (2018) who observed inclusion of 0.05 and 0.06% blend of OAs and MCFAs levels in the diets linearly improved the BWG and FCR. Correspondingly, dietary inclusion of MCFA at 0.8 to 1.7 g/kg feed (Issac et al., 2013), 0.05% of lauric acid (Bhalsing, 2018) recorded superior FCR in broilers. Moreover, Hejdysz et al., (2018) observed improvement in FCR by 5% on supplementation of MCFA in triglyceride form of capric and caprylic acids at 3 g/kg over control. The improved FCR could also be due to reduced pathogenic bacteria load in the gut with MCFA supplementation. Reduction in coliform count might have minimized wastage of nutrients and also diverted them for body weight gain, which eventually resulted in improved feed efficiency in broilers fed MCFA.
 

Table 4: Cumulative weekly feed conversion ratio in broilers fed MCFAs singly or in combination.


 
European performance efficiency factor (EPEF)
 
The EPEF has been considered for evaluating the broiler performance index under different dietary treatments. The highest EPEF was observed in treatment group T2 and T4 receiving diet at 0.25% of lauric acid singly and in group of combination of with capric acid is 324.57 and 323.80 respectively followed by treatment groups T3, T1 and T0 have EPEF value 307.10, 300.31 and 289.65 respectively. Thus, the overall performance of the birds under treatment group T4 and T2 was found to be better. Lipinski et al., (2016) also indicated that the performance efficiency index was improved with 45 points in the birds fed with MCFAs.
 
Gut health
 
The statistical analysis of total coliform count (TCC) revealed that there was no significant difference among different dietary treatments groups fed medium chain fatty acid, however, numerically better results than control were obtained. The total viable count (TVC) in treatment group offered feed having lauric acid and also combination of capric acid an lauric acid were significantly (P<0.05) lower than control group. Whereas, the total viable count in BMD and capric acid fed broilers were comparably higher than those lauric acid and combination fed groups (Table 5). The results of present experiment are in agreement with Skřivan et al., (2010) who observed that supplementation of MCFA lowered coliform count. Deschepper et al., (2003) showed that MCFA at 0.8 and 1.2 g/kg feed reduced the invasion of Salmonella enteritidis in the intestinal organ of broilers. Whereas, Evans et al., (2017) reported that addition of medium chain fatty acids in turkey poults diet could lower the bacterial colonization such as Salmonella in early period of their life.
 

Table 5: Cecal TVC and TCC count log 10 (CFU/gm.) at 42nd day in broilers fed different MCFAs alone or in combination.

CONCLUSION

It was concluded that the dietary supplementation of medium chain fatty acids singly or in combination at 0.25% level in broilers diets improved growth performance and gut health in broiler.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors gratefully acknowledged to Associate Dean, Post Graduate Institute of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Akola and Director of Research, MAFSU, Nagpur for providing necessary amenities.

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