Effect of Dietary Acidifier on Broiler Chicks Performance

The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of acidifier (Premacid) supplementation to ablanced diet on the performance of broiler chicks. Two hundred one- day -old unsexed broiler chicks were used in this experiment .Chicks were kept in a brooder house for 5 days, then were divided into two groups of 100 birds each. Ten birds per replicate. The birds were fed on two experimental diets, basal diet (control) and diet supplemented with Acidifier at the rate of 3.5 kg/ton in starter diet and 2.5 kg/ton in finisher diet. All diets were iso- nitrogenous and isocaloric according to the NRC recommendation. Feed intake and body weight were weekly recorded; weight gain and feed conversion ratio were weekly calculated .The experiment lasted for 7weeks from 3th Sebtember 2oo5- to 21th October 2005 at Kuku poultry Research farm-Animal production Research center. Twenty birds from each dietary treatment were randomly selected weighed and slaughtered for determining carcass dressing percentage. The results indicated that the addition of Acidifier affected feed intake and live body weight but had no significant effect (p>0.05) on weight gain, feed conversion ratio, and dressing percentage. The present study concluded that supplemental of organic acids to the diets of broiler chicks improve feed intake and live body weight ,but feed conversion ratio and dressing perecentage were not affecte