Effect of dietary citric acid on water consumption pattern of broiler chicken.

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.