Effect of citric acid and acetic acid on the performance of broilers

An experiment was conducted with commercial broilers to investigate the effects of feeding citric acid, acetic acid and their combination on their performance and to determine the economic competence of using citric acid and acetic acid in broiler rations. A total number of 108 one day old straight run broiler chicks were distributed to four dietary treatments i.e. 0 % citric or acetic acid (A) , 0.5% citric acid (B), 0.5% acetic acid (C) and their combinations 0.5% citric acid and 0.5% acetic acid (D). The birds were reared in cages. Body weight gains, feed conversion ratio (FCR), mortality, dressing yield and carcass characteristics were recorded. The performance showed significant increase in body weight gain (P<0.05) when compared with the control during 0-5 weeks of age on 0.5% citric acid (B). Feed consumption increased (P<0.05) at 2nd and 3rd weeks of age on 0.5% citric acid (B). Feed conversion was found higher (P<0.05) during 0-5 weeks of age in treatment B when compared to those of the other treatments. Carcass characteristics were not affected by dietary treatments. The highest mortality was found in treatment A and treatment C due to excessive hot. It may be concluded that use of 0.5% citric acid in the diet of broilers may have better performance in respect of live weight gain and feed conversion

Citric acid as feed additive in diet of rabbit- effect on growth performance

The experiment was conducted for a period of 56 days using 24 growing rabbits (4 to 6 weeks old) to evaluate the effect of citric acid (CA) on the growth performance. Concentrate mixture was fortified by 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% CA to 4 different groups of rabbit considering 6 in each. Green grass and concentrate mixture were supplied on ad-libitum basis. Growth rate increased 5, 8 and 12% respectively in 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% CA supplemented groups (P>0.05). Total dry matter (DM) intake decreased numerically due to increased level of CA whereas, growth velocity increased with increased level of CA. Insignificant difference observed in terms of feed conversion ratio (FCR-DM intake/weight gain) among different groups but improved 6, 16, and 8 % respectively in 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% CA offering groups. Over all numerically better performance obtained due to addition of CA in rabbit diet. So, it may be concluded that the CA up to level of 1.5% in diet may have positive effect on growth performance of growing rabbit

Response of plants to calcium concentration in flowing solution culture with chloride or sulphate as the counter-ion

Solution calcium concentrations required for the growth of a range of plant species, including both monocotyledons and dicotyledons, were determined in two experiments in which plants were grown in flowing solution culture at constantly maintained calcium concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 3000 μM. Calcium chloride was used as the calcium source in the first experiment, calcium sulphate was used in the second. At calcium concentrations of 10 μM and below, all species developed calcium deficiency symptoms. The severity of the deficiency was more pronounced in the dicotyledons than in the monocotyledons. However, cassava was much more tolerant than all other dicotyledons and equally as tolerant as rice, the most tolerant monocotyledon. Solution calcium concentrations required for 90% of maximum yield were generally lower for monocotyledons (3 to 20 μM) than for dicotyledons (7 to 720μM) when calcium chloride was used as the calcium source. When calcium sulphate was used, 7 out of 11 species, including 3 monocotyledons, required external calcium concentrations of 1200 μM and above. The results are discussed in relation to effects of solution composition and the choice of counter-ions on plant response to calcium and other macronutrient cations. It is concluded that yield depressions due to toxicity of excesses of chloride, and possibly other counter-ions, can lead to serious underestimation of limiting external cation concentrations for plant growth