Uncoated and microencapsulated butyric acid in alternative to antibiotics in diets for broilers challenged with Eimeria spp.

Author(s)

Gabriela Ventura

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Dracena. 2019-08-22.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Tecnológicas. Dracena
• Defense date: 2019-07-05
• Advisor: Valquíria Cação Cruz Polycarpo; Gustavo do Valle Polycarpo

Abstract

Protected organic acids have a different mechanism of action from non-protected organic acids, allowing its operations happen in a specific area of the intestine, allowing greater effectiveness in its action as an antimicrobial, which may influence gastrointestinal tract conditions, and consequently performance. For this, 1,320 male Cobb chicks were distributed in a completely randomized design with five treatments and six replicates. The treatments were: T1 - basal diet; T2 - basal diet + uncoated butyric acid; T3 - basal diet + microencapsulated butyric acid; T4 - basal diet + uncoated butyric acid + microencapsulated butyric acid; T5 - basal diet + antibiotic and anticoccidial. At 16 days of age, the birds of all treatments were challenged by inoculating a pool of Eimeria. At 42 days, birds that were supplemented with butyric acid, regardless of the form, showed a decrease in performance. After the challenge, the additives provided mucosal recovery, showing improvements in villus height in relation to the negative control group, and increased goblet cells per villus jejunum of birds supplemented with acid in the uncoated form. The number of oocysts excreted per gram of feces showed an interaction between the additive and collection period. In the reading of lesion score, it was observed that the group of the additives showed no differences in relation to the negative control group. When evaluating mucosa turnover, it was evident that the supplementation with butyric acid, as well as antibiotics, does not accelerate the turnover of the intestinal mucosa during the growth and maturation of the intestine, but during the regeneration of this tissue, the association of the butyric acids accelerates the proliferation cellular. It is concluded that the supplementation with butyric acid provided alone improves the performance of broiler chickens up to 21 days of age and are important for the maintenance and function of the intestinal mucosa, in addition to accelerating cell proliferation. (AU)