Litter Treatment Using Zeolite as a Management Protocol to Enhance Broiler Performance and Control..

The effect of employing zeolite as a litter management regimen to improve broiler performance and decrease ammonia emission in broiler production was evaluated over the course of a nine-week trial. The study employed a total of 140 broiler birds (arbour acre). They were randomly assigned to four treatment groups labelled A-D in a completely randomised experimental design after brooding them together for two weeks to stabilise them. Each treatment was reproduced five times with seven birds per replicate. Treatment A (control) had no zeolite treatment, B (200g zeolite kg-3 litter), C (400g zeolite kg-3 litter), and D (400g zeolite kg-3 litter) (600g zeolite kg-3litter). The experiment was split into two sections. The starter phase lasted three weeks and the finisher phase four weeks. Feed and water were freely available. The mean values for total feed intake, average daily feed intake, total body weight, average daily weight increase, final body weight, and feed conversion ratio in both phases were significantly different (P0.05) in favour of the treatment groups. In addition, the litter chemical analysis revealed significant differences (P0.05) between the research groups in the mean values for moisture, uric acid, pH, phosphorous, ammonium nitrate, total volatile fatty acid, ammonium sulphate, ammonia, nitrogen, and ash in both phases. There was also a significant difference in litter microbial load estimates between the treatments (P0.05). Finally, litter treatment with zeolite as a management technique to improve broiler performance and limit ammonia emissions was found to be effective. was able to improve the birds' performance by reducing the number of primary odour producers and microbiological activities in the litter. As a result, farmers are encouraged to apply this litter control approach to improve bird performance and minimise ammonia emissions in broiler homes.

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