EFFECTS OF DIETARY INCLUSION OF VARIED LEVELS OF BUTYRIC ACID AS ANTIBIOTIC ON THE PERFORMANCE OF TURKEY POULTS

The effects of butyric acid supplemented diets on growth performance of turkey poults were examined in a 49-day experiment using one hundred and sixty (160) (one-day old) Nicholas turkey poults. The experimental design was a Completely Randomized Design. Poults were brooded for 7 days, after which they were allotted to 4 dietary treatments with 5 replicates of 8 birds per replicate. Treatment 1(T1) was the basal diet with no supplement while treatments 2 (T2), 3 (T3), and 4(T4) were supplemented with antibiotics, 0.2% butyric acid and 0.4% butyric acid respectively. Feed was offered ad-libitum. Final weight and weight gain of poults fed control, antibiotics and 0.2% butyric acid supplemented diets were similar but significantly (p<0.05) higher than birds fed 0.4% butyric acid diet. Significant higher feed intake was observed in birds fed control and antibiotics diets while the least was recorded in birds fed 0.4% butyric acid diet. It was observed that 0.2% butyric acid appears to be a viable alternative to antibiotics growth promoter in turkey diets without any detrimental effect on the productive performances.