Effect of Graded Level of Dietary Supplementation of Citric Acid on Performance and Serum Biochemistry of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of antibiotics and graded levels of citric acid as growth promoting agent on growth performance, carcass attributes and serum lipid profile of broiler chickens. 300 day-old arbor acre broiler chicks were allocated to five treatments; each treatment had six replicates with ten birds per replicate. The experimental diets are as follows: Treatment 1- basal diet + oxytetracycline (positive control), Treatment 2- basal diet (negative control), Treatment 3- basal diet + 1% citric acid, Treatment 4- basal diet + 2% citric acid, Treatment 5- basal diet + 3% citric acid. There were no significant differences in weight gains and FCR of birds fed a basal diet with antibiotics, and. a basal diets with citric acid. However, basal diets with 1% citric acid had highest weight gain. Birds fed basal diet only had the least weight gain which is significantly different from other treatments. The result of triglyceride, cholesterol, HDLc, LDLc and VLDLc values were not significantly different across the treatments (p>0.05). From this study, we can infer that antibiotics as a growth promoting agent may conveniently be replaced with citric acid to enhance broiler chickens performance.