[Effect of betaine on the efficacy of salinomycin in broiler chicks in experimental coccidiosis]

ABSTRACT

To study the interactive effect of betaine [BET]and salinomycin [SAL] in coccidian-infected broiler chicks.Randomized complete block with 2*2 factorialarrangement.Four hundred and eighty male Ross 308 broilerchicks.The chicks were randomly assigned to fourdietary treatments including 1] basal diet, 2] basal dietplus .15% BET, 3] basal diet plus 66ppm SAL, and 4] basaldiet plus .15% BET plus 66ppm SAL. Each treatmentcontained 4 replicates of 30 chicks and fed ad-libitum. Allof the chicks were inoculated with a suspension of themixed culture of Eimeria oocysts on 15 days of age. Fecessamples were taken to determine the number of oocysts pergram of feces [OPG]. Plasma carotenoid concentrations[PCC] were evaluated on 14 and 28 days of age. Bodyweight gain [BWG], feed intake [FI], feed conversion ratio[FCR], and Europeanefficiencyfactor [EEF] weredetermined to evaluate broiler's performance.General linear model [GLM] andDuncan's multiple range test.Supplementation of diets with 66 ppmSALsignificantly on improved the performance, increased thePCC [P<0.05], and decreased the OPG. Adding 0.15% BETalone did not affect production performance, PCC andOPG significantly [P> 0.05]. Diet containing 66 ppm SALsupplemented with 0.15% BET significantly increased theBWG, EEF, and PCC while it decreased the FCR and OPG[P< 0.05].The results of this experimental studyindicated that BET at the level of 0.15% could increase theefficacy of SAL for preventing deleterious effects ofcoccidiosis in broiler chicks