Abstract

Management of water is of utmost importance in order to ensure better performance of poultry birds. A study was thus conducted to evaluate the effect of water acidification and sanitation on performance, gut microbial population and carcass characteristics of broiler chicken. A total of 144 broiler chickens aged one-week were utilized for the study up to 6 weeks of age. The birds were distributed into 4 treatment groups of three replicates of 12 chickens. Untreated drinking water was routinely used in the control group (T1). In T2 and T3, acidifier and sanitizer were used in an amount of 1ml and 5ml/20 liters of water, respectively, while in T4 a combination of acidifier and sanitizer was used in similar doses. There was a significant effect of acidification and sanitization of water on body weight gain and feed conversion ratio of broiler chicken. The combination of acidifier and sanitizer (T4) was found to be highly effective in improving chickens’ performance, followed by sanitizer alone (T3) and acidifier alone (T2), compared to the control group. There was no significant effect on various carcass characteristics of broiler chicken except for the gut pH and intestinal length. There was a significant effect on the pH value of various intestinal segments in broiler chickens using acidifier treated water (T2) compared to T1 and T3, but no statistical effect was noticed between T2and T4. A similar trend was noticed in the length of intestines of broiler chickens in various treatment groups. There was a significant reduction in Caecal Coliform Count ( in all the treatment groups that was used acidifier and sanitizer compared to the control group.