Effects of dietary organic acids on performance, cecal microbiota, and gut morphology in broilers.

Organic acids have exhibited great potential as an antibiotic replacement and as an additive work tremendously for health maintenance of broiler chicken. To explore more about organic acids, a total of 900 day-old broiler chicks (Cobb-500) were procured from a local hatchery and distributed into 9 treatment groups having 5 replicates of 20 birds each; duration of the biological trial was of 35 days. Group T1 served as control group without any dietary supplementation. Other groups T2 and T3 were boosted with different levels (125 g/ton and 250 g/ton) of enramycin (antibiotic), T4, T5, and T6 were supplemented with different levels (2 kg/ton, 3 kg/ton, and 4 kg/ton) of ammonium formate and ammonium propionate, and T7, T8, and T9 were fed with different levels (2 kg/ton, 3 kg/ton, and 4 kg/ton) of calcium formate and calcium propionate. The findings declared significant improvement (P   0.05) among different organic acids treatments. Hence, organic acids can be utilized as a better replacement for antibiotics. Supplementation of organic acids at a dose rate of 3 kg/ton and 4 kg/ton is recommended for efficient performance of broilers.