Effect of adding citric acid and Tartaric acid to the diet on productive performance for broiler chickens (Ross-308)‎

Abstract EN

The experiment was conducted in the poultry field belonging to the Department of Animal Production, College of Agriculture, Al-Qasim Green University for the period from (8/10 / 2018) to (12/11/2018).

The study aims to identify the effect of different levels of citric acid, tartaric acid, and their interaction on the productive performance for broiler chickens (Ross-308).

In the experiment, 270 chicks of unsexed broiler chickens (Ross-308) were used, with one day age, randomly distributed, with a rate of 6 experimental treatments.

Each treatment included 3 replicates, each replicate has 15 birds.

The treatments of the experiment were as follows: The first treatment: a basic diet (initiator and final) that does not contain organic acids.

The second and third treatments: citric acid was added to the feed (2.

5 and 3 mg/kg feed).

As for the fourth and fifth treatment, tartaric acid was added to the feed (2.

5 and 3 mg/kg feed), the sixth treatment: a mixture of citric acid and tartaric acid was added to the feed (1.

5 + 1.

5 mg/kg feed).

The results of the experiment showed a significant difference (p <0.

01) for the birds of the second, third and sixth treatment (2.

5% citric acid, 3% citric acid, 1.

5% citric acid + 1.

5% tartaric acid), respectively, at the fifth week in the average of the body weight and total weight gain.

The control treatment was significantly excelled (p <0.

05) in the average of total feed consumption which amounted to (3297.

67 g / bird).

The sixth treatment recorded the best total feed conversion ratio amounted to (1.

5 g feed / g weight gain) compared to the control treatment.