Use of Sodium bicarbonate as an excellent nutritional additive to control caloric stress in poultry

By: José Salazar.

Summary

The effect of NaHCO3 was studied for 216 Cobb chickens that were 4 weeks old and under caloric stress. 18- 1 m2 metabolic cages were used with a density of 14 birds/m2. 3 treatments were given with 6 repetitions: T1, control of comfortable temperature (30 °C max.) without NaHCO3 in the feed; T2, with caloric stress (45 °C max.) without NaHCO3 and T3 under caloric stress (45 °C max.) with 0.5% of NaHCO3 in the feed. Relative humidity was maintained constant at 55%.

The chickens were given three days to adapt, only administering NaHCO3 in the diet of group T3. Caloric stress was created with infra-red reflectors for 9 hours from 8:00 A.M. to 17:00 P.M., and the test or observation period was one entire day from 8:00 AM to 8:00 AM on the following day. Daily Weight Gain (GDP), Food Consumption (CA), Food Conversion (C/A), extracellular Na Concentration and intracellular K were measured.

In addition, a subjective measurement was done of respiratory rhythm by observing panting every hour for 10 minutes (Phases I, II y III). Once the test concluded, five confirmation trials were performed at commercial farms, comparing the Control group (C) with the group Treated (T) with 0.5% of NaHCO3 in the diet and the response variable was greater production of newly hatched chicks. The results indicate that there is a significant difference between the three treatments and, as expected, the best results were for T1 followed in a descending order by T3 and T2 (weight< .05).

On the other hand, field results confirm the experimental test (weight< .05), and with this we conclude that NaHCO3 can be used as an excellent nutritional additive to control caloric stress in poultry, in an effective and economic manner.