Effects of dietary propionic acid, sodium citrate, and phytase on growth performance, mineral digestibility, and tibia properties in broilers

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of supplementing a low available phosphorous (P) diet (0.14%) with phytase, propionic acid, and sodium citrate on performance, mineral metabolism, and tibia properties of broilers. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments based a completely randomized design was used to evaluate the effects of phytase (0 and 300 units kg-1), propionic acid (0% and 0.2%), and sodium citrate (0% and 3%). The phytase improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) and increased feed intake (FI), digestibility of Ca, percentage Ca of tibia ash, and bone-breaking strength (P .05). Moreover, propionic acid supplementation to diet did not affect the percentage of tibia ash and bone breaking strength (P >.05). Results of this experiment indicated that supplementation of sodium citrate to the P-deficient diet improved the phytase effect, growth, and utilization of phytate-P.