Productivity of Broiler Chickens Fed Diets Containing Dry Lime Fruit Pomace and Organic Acid Blend Volume 2 - Issue 4

Eugenes K Ndelekwute*, Effiong B Essien, Uduak L Unah and Deborah C. Iwunna

• Department of Animal Scicnce, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria

Received: April 09, 2019;   Published: April 22, 2019

Corresponding author: Eugenes K Ndelekwute, Department of Animal Scicnce, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria

DOI: 10.32474/CDVS.2019.02.000145

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Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the dietary effect of dry lime fruit pomace and a blend (1:1) of synthetic organic acids (citric and ascorbic acids) on growth performance and internal organs of broiler chickens. One hundred and twenty (120) day old Hubbard chicks were used. There were 4 dietary treatments (T1,T2,T3,T4) replicated three times and each replicate had 10 birds. T1 was the control diet which had no lime fruit pomace, citric acid and ascorbic acid blend. T2 contained 5% dry lime fruit pomace, T3 contained 0.5% of the organic acids blend and T4 contained 5% lime fruit pomace and 0.5% of the citric and ascorbic acids blend. The test materials were incorporated into starter and finisher diets. Feed and water were supplied ad libitum for 49 days the experiment lasted. Starter phase lasted for 28 days and finisher for 21 days. At the starter phase organic acids blend improved live weight and feed intake, while feeding pomace alone and mixture of pomace and organic acids blend reduced final live weight. At the finisher phase, organic acids blend gave the best live weight while pomace and mixture of pomace and organic acids blend reduced it. Mixture of pomace and organic acids blend reduced feed intake which was improved by organic acids blend. Higher bile volume, lower small intestine and caecum resulted from feeding of pomace and organic acids blends. In conclusion, citric and ascorbic acids blend showed positive influence on productivity of broilers and they are recommended.

Keywords: Ascorbic Acid; Broiler Chickens; Citric Acid; Dry Lime Fruit Pomace; Growth Performance

Introduction

Poultry rations are formulated to contain an optimum nutrient concentration obtainable at a reasonable cost for desirable productivity. These nutrients concentrations currently due to technology of feed formulation such as use of software can easily be achieved. The onus lies on the effective utilization of the feed by the animal. The animal factor is now a critical factor in nutrient utilization and the gut plays essential role. The gut should be healthy with vibrant and working architecture. For instance, it must have friendly micro flora such as Lactic acid bacterium, optimum number of villi with good height that are working. The secretive, digestive and absorptive capacity of the gut should not be in doubt. In absence of these, feed utilization could be undermined irrespective of the quality of the feed. Recognizing this, certain non-nutritive feed additives have been used for decades to achieve improved broiler productivity. Feed additives have been widely used to increase the performance of animals and are now used in poultry feeding practices extensively [1]. They are used not only to stimulate the growth and feed efficiency but to improve the health and general performance of birds [2]. Several antibiotic growth promoters had been used in poultry feed aiming at preventing diseases, improve growth performance, and to increase some useful micro-organisms in the intestine. However, because of consumer pressure to reduce the use of antibiotic growth promoters as feed additives and find alternatives to them in poultry diets, researchers are now focusing on alternatives in place of antibiotics [3].

For this reason, alternative additives such as herbs , spices, essential oils (extracted from aromatic plants), enzymes, organic acids, prebiotics and probiotics are used as growth promoters in poultry diets in many countries for organic poultry production [4]. Organic acids have shown positive results in poultry production, for reducing the intestinal pH and bacterial growth thus providing better intestinal health for birds to obtain maximum nutrient absorption [5]. Organic acids such as formic, citric, ascorbic, butyric and acetic acids can be found in fruits as well as ants. Such fruits include lime fruit and lime products such as the juice, peel and pomace. The lime fruit pomace contained 0.65 and 0.98% of ascorbic and citric acids respectively. They are easily accessible by local farmers and rarely scarce as they are grown all-round the season, and cheap especially the by-products of the industry such as the pomace. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of dry lime fruit pomace as source of citric and ascorbic acids, and the blend of synthetic ascorbic and citric acids on performance of broiler chickens.

Materials and Methods

The experiment was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm of the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The lime fruits used were purchased from the market. They were thoroughly washed with water. Each fruit was cut into pieces and thereafter ground with grinding machine. Cheese cloth was used to extract the juice. The chaff (pomace) was then dried under the sun. The dry pomace was stored in a transparent plastic container. The ascorbic and citric acid content of the dry pomace was determined [6]. Starter and finisher broiler diets were produced (Tables 1 & 2).

Experimental design and Data Analysis

The day-old chicks were purchased from a reputable hatchery and managed under welfare best practices. Ethics regulating experimenting with life animals stated by [7] were adhered to. The research protocol was approved by the University Research and Ethics Committee. The experiment was carried out on completely randomized design (CRD). One hundred and twenty (120) birds were used. There were four dietary treatments (T1, T2, T3 and T4) each having 30 birds. Each treatment was replicated three times and each replicate had 10 birds. T1 was the control diet without dry lime fruit pomace and synthetic citric/ascorbic acids blend; T2 contained 5 percent lime fruit pomace; T3 contained 0.5 percent synthetic citric/ascorbic acids blend; T4 contained 5 percent lime fruit pomace and 0.5% citric/ascorbic acids blend. Data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using SPSS software (version 21; SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA). Where significant effects were detected from analysis of variance, treatment means were compared using Duncan’s New Multiple Range Test [8].

Results

The effect of citric and ascorbic acids blend and dry lime fruit pomace on growth performance of starter chicks is shown in Table 3. The organic acids blend and the dry lime fruit pomace significantly (P<0.05) influenced growth performance. Dry lime fruit pomace exerted negatively on the final live weight as the live weight of birds that consumed the pomace was the lowest compared to the control and the birds that consumed both 0.50% blend of crystalline ascorbic and citric acids. The negative effect on final live weight was more pronounced in birds that consumed the mixture of dry lime fruit pomace and 0.50% citric/ascorbic acids blend. Citric/ascorbic acid blend improved final live weight. While daily weight gain was improved by the organic acids blend, combination of the organic acids and the dry pomace significantly (P<0.05) reduced daily gain. There was no significant difference in daily weight gain between the control and dry pomace. In terms of feed intake both total and daily feed intakes were higher in the group that consumed organic acids blend compared to the control, dry pomace and mixture of dry pomace and the organic acids blend. Feed: gain ratio was poor in group of birds that consumed mixture of dry pomace and organic acids blend compared to the control, dry pomace and organic acid blend. Feed: gain ratio was poorest in birds that consumed dry pomace and organic acids blend, but similar in control, organic acids blend and dry pomace. Protein intake followed similar trend as the feed intake. Control and dry pomace produced better protein efficiency ratio compare to organic acids blend and the mixture of dry pomace and acid blend.

The dietary effect of dry lime fruit pomace, citric and ascorbic acids blend on finisher broilers is indicated in Table 4. Diets significantly influenced (P<0.05) all the growth parameters measured. Both the final live weight and daily weight gain were improved by blend of citric and ascorbic acids. Feeding dry pomace alone reduced final live weight while the mixture of dry pomace, ascorbic acid and citric acid blend further reduced final live weight. Only the mixture of dry pomace and the ascorbic and citric acids blend significantly reduced daily weight gain. Total and daily feed intakes followed similar trend. Feeding of dry pomace alone and its mixture with ascorbic and citric acids blend negatively affected feed intake. Inclusion of the organic acid blend did not result to significant (P>0.05) change in feed intake compared to the control. Feeding of dry pomace, organic acids blend and mixture of dry pomace and the organic acids blend gave better feed: gain ratio compared to the control. The quantity of protein consumed daily was similar in the control, birds that consumed dry pomace, and blend of the organic acids. However, protein intake was significantly reduced when dry pomace was mixed with the organic acids. Nevertheless, it was observed that utilization of the protein was better in groups that were fed dry pomace, and the organic acid blend compared to the control.

Table 5 shows treatment effects on internal organs. No significant differences (P>0.05) were recorded in the percentage weight of heart, pancreas and spleen. Nevertheless, significant (P<0.05) differences were observed in the gizzard, liver, kidney, bile volume, small intestine and caecum. Feeding of dry pomace, citric and ascorbic acids blend and the mixture of dry pomace and the acid blend resulted to bigger gizzard. Combination of dry pomace, citric and ascorbic acids blend produced larger liver and blend of citric and ascorbic acids produced smaller liver compared to the control and feeding of dry pomace alone. Control diet recorded highest percentage weight of kidney followed by mixture of dry pomace and the organic acids blend. There was no difference between those of dry pomace and blend of citric and ascorbic acids. Dietary inclusion of either dry pomace or ascorbic and citric acids blend resulted to higher secretion of bile and lower weights of small intestine and caecum.

Discussion

Generally citrus fruits wastes contain essential bioactive compounds such as flavonoids and carotenoids which are known for their anti-oxidant properties exerting positive influence on health. Other known components such as organic acids and essential oils are known for their antibacterial actions and pectin for its gelation properties. The outcome of this work could be associated with biochemical composition of the test dry lime fruit pomace. The starter broilers which consumed dry pomace that posted poor growth could probably be due to presence of pectin as reported by Silva [9]. It has been reported that pectin reduced nutrient digestibility especially protein and increased digesta viscosity thereby reducing transit time of digesta [9]. High viscosity encourages fermentation, causes poor absorption of nutrients and could consequently lead to poor growth. Impressive performance of ascorbic and citric acids blend was in line with the report of [10] that organic acids are good agents for growth promotion. This has been ascribed to the ability of organic acids to reduce the pH of proventriculus at early life of birds which is essential for adequate protein digestibility [10,11].

Also, the ability of organic acids to prevent early colonization of the gut by pathogenic bacteria and allows acid loving ones like lactic acid bacterium to thrive has also been linked to optimum performance of broilers [12]. It was also observed that mixing the pomace with the blend of ascorbic and citric acids further reduced growth which could be opined to emanate from high level of ascorbic and citric acids. The dry pomace contained natural ascorbic and citric acids and mixing the synthetic citric and ascorbic acids with it could have increased its content of these organic acids. While citric and ascorbic acids are generally safe, side effects do occur if an excess of the acids is consumed [13]. Some of these side effects include stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting [13]. The issue of stomach cramps means that the lining of the intestine could be eroded especially the villi thereby undermining the absorptive capacity of the duodenum. Higher feed intake recorded by the ascorbic and citric acids blend was in line with characteristics of citric and ascorbic acids as reported by [14] who attributed it to better nutrient digestibility. Organic acids improve gut health by reducing some biological reactions like fermentation which leads to digestion disorder. Hence, healthy gut could encourage and stimulate appetite. The results of feed intake, protein intake, feed: gain ratio and protein efficiency ratio clearly indicate that poor growth of the birds that consumed dry pomace mixed with organic acids blend could be due to poor utilization of nutrients.

During the finisher phase, the reduction of feed intake by dry pomace could be attributed to swelling effect of pectin a component of the pomace leading to stomach fill. It could be that this also contributed to the poor performance of diets containing pomace. The feed intake of control which improved at the finisher phase compared to the group that consumed blend of ascorbic and citric acids is indicating that longer period of dietary exposure of broilers to these organic acids could be harmful considering the negative effect they could have on the lumen. Considering the results of feed: gain ratio and protein efficiency ratio of the finisher broilers where those that consumed dry pomace had better results compared to control it could be suggested that dry lime fruit pomace be fed during the finisher phase. Enlargement of the liver and kidney by the mixture of pomace and organic acids blend could be suggested to be due to overdose of citric and ascorbic acids. This is because feeding of the acid blend alone did not increase the size of the liver and also feeding of the pomace alone did not increase the liver size either. Dry lime fruit pomace contained also citric and ascorbic acids. The result of the kidney is an indication that both the dry pomace and the organic acid blend did not impart negatively on the kidney. This could be due to presence of ascorbic acid which exert biochemical effects on internal organs such as antioxidant effect, reducing stress on the organs. Stressful condition could lead to inflammation of internal organs. Dry citrus fruit pomace is made up of the peels and seeds of the fruit which contain carotenoids, flavonoids and essential oils which have been reported to have also antioxidant effect [15]. The endogenous secretion capacity of organic acids which citric and ascorbic acid belong was reported by [16]. Dry pomace contains organic acids and other bioactive compounds such as essential oils and phenols that express antibacterial capacity. Feeding of antibacterial substances was reported to produce smaller size of intestine [17]. This has been linked to low microbial load and reduced bacteria activity in the intestine of animals fed antimicrobial compounds [18]. Bigger gizzard could mean that the gizzards will contain more feed, leading to more digestion efficiency (quantity of feed digested per time), produce more pulse for grinding which could create better condition for duodenal enzymes to work.

Conclusion

Feeding of 5% dry lime fruit pomace exerted negatively on the feed intake which resulted to poor growth performance of the broiler chickens. Furthermore, addition of blend of citric and ascorbic acids to the dry pomace did not improve growth of the broilers. Nevertheless, inclusion of 0.5% blend of citric and ascorbic acids increased productivity of the broilers. Therefore, addition of 0.5% of 1: 1 blend of citric and ascorbic acids in broiler diets could be an ideal practice and is recommended.

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