Abstract:
This study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary citric acid (CA) on water consumption pattern of broiler chickens. Three"tlietary treatments, consisting of the control diet (0%), same diet with 2% or 4% CA were fed to 72 broiler chicks from 26th day to 40th day of age. The birds were randomly assigned to 18 cages (4 birds per cage, 6 cages per treatment). Water intake (WI) and feed intake (Fl) were measured daily and weights of birds were recorded at 261\ 315', 3 81\ and 40th day of their age. The results showed that WI and WI per 100g body weight of birds given CA free diets were significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of the birds given diets with CA. WI increased up to 36th day and dropped gradually thereafter, which could be best described by a sinusoidal fit, WI=288.6 + 128.6 * cos(0.173 t+3.78), (R2 =75.9). The water: feed ratio (WFR) of birds increased significantly (P<0.05) with time. WFR was significantly different among three treatments; the highest WFR was observed for diet having 4% CA. The daily temperature (0C) and relative humidity (RH) values affected (P<0.05) the water intake of birds. Contour map of °C-RH-WI showed that the area between (27.2, 85.0) (27.8, 86.7) (28.8, 80.4) gave the highest WI per day (400-500 ml). It was concluded that diets supplemented with CA reduced the WI and WI per 1 00g body weight.
