Effect of dietary supplementation of salts of organic acids on gut morphology and meat quality of broilers

The present investigation was conducted to appraise the effect of different levels of salts of organic acids on the gut morphology and meat quality of broilers. A total 300 day-old commercial chicks were randomly divided into 5 treatments. Each treatment consists of 6 replicates having 10 birds per replicate. The control diet was formulated to contain approximately the same metabolizable energy (ME), crude protein and limiting amino acids (methionine and lysine) as per the requirements of birds. The first group (T1) was fed on control diet without any feed additives, while, groups (T-2, T-3, T-4 and T-5) were fed on basal diets containing sodium butyrate and calcium propionate @ 0.5% and 1.0% respectively. Six birds from each treatment (1 per replication) were randomly selected for slaughter and collection of samples and microbial study at day 42. Performance of birds in terms of body weight and feed conversion ratio was significantly improved in treated groups. Results showed that in gut morphology, pH was reduced significantly (P<0.05) in T-3 and T-5 (6.24 and 6.22, respectively) as compared to the control group (6.64) while significant improvement was observed in villus height and crypt depth in all treatment groups and were highest in T-3 (539.50 mu m,135.67 mu m). Lowest Coliform bacteria (log CFU/g.)was recorded in T-3 (16.57) which was significantly differ with the T-1 (19.17) and Lactobacilli count was significantly increased in all treatments as compared to control. Supplementation of organic acids reduced meat cholesterol level significantly and lowest was in T-5 (48.03mg/dL) followed by T-3 (48.30mg/dL). Similarly SFA decreased while PUFA content was increased significantly on supplementation of salts as compared to control.