Philippine E-Journals

Effect of Dietary Butyric Acid Supplementation on the Laying Performance of Chickens

Edwin S. Luis | Marcela R. Batungbacal | Cisima P. Lavega

Discipline: Veterinary Medicine, Animal Science

 

Abstract:

A study was conducted to assess the effect of butyric acid supplementation of the diet on the performance of layers and to evaluate the economics of using butyric acid in table egg production. A total of 210 thirty week-old layers (Babcock strain) raised in individual cages were used in this study. They were randomly assigned to three treatments following a completely randomized design. The dietary treatments were as follows: 1) basal layer diet without butyric acid; 2) basal layer diet with 0.025% butyric acid; and 3) basal layer diet with 0.05% butyric acid. Results showed that supplementation of the diet with butyric acid generally improved rate of egg production, egg weight, feed efficiency, egg shell thickness and livability of the layers relative to those fed the control diet. The income over feed cost (IOFC) of the layers was markedly increased with 0.050 butyric acid supplementation of the diet. This increase in IOFC could be attributed mainly to the combined effect of nonsignificant but consistent improvement in performance of the layer with butyric acid supplementation of the diet.