Dr. Pratik R. Jadhav*, Dr. Ashvini P. Bansod
The demand for human edible protein is increasing globally indicating bright future for poultry production including broiler chickens. The broiler production is steadily growing in our country. India rank 3rd in egg production 4th in broiler production in the world. So, the poultry industry has become an important economic activity in our country. The per capita availability of eggs and meat is 74 eggs and 3.25 kg meat per annum which is far less than ICMR recommendation of 180 eggs and 10 kg chicken per person annum. This wide gap between availability and requirement suggest that in India poultry farming has good opportunities. Recent trends in poultry development have revealed that this industry has tremendous potential in improving the nutritional status of millions of people. In the words of Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, “The achievements and growth in poultry are comparable to the advances made in the wheat production, which had led nation to the path of red revolution”.
The broilers have reached high production with efficient feed conversion due to impressive progress in the genetic potential of the birds, feed quality, and strict biosecurity. Apart from these mentioned-factors, gut health played most important role in poultry production as it is the major site for feed digestion, nutrient absorption and metabolism, energy and protein utilization. The gut is the largest internal organ and has the most extensive exposed surface within the body. When the gut function and health are impaired, digestion and absorption of nutrients are affected and thus the health and performance of birds will be compromised. In that context, efforts are being made to enhance gut health to improve digestion and utilization of nutrients as gut function and health are important for optimum performance of birds.
For maintaining the efficient gut function, dynamic balance between the mucus layer, epithelial cells, microbiota and immune cells present in the intestine generally, antibiotic growth promoter at sub-therapeutic dose as feed additives has been widely used in poultry production. The prolonged and unregulated use of this may result into development of antibiotic resistance and residue in poultry products. Due to this European Union banned use of antibiotics as growth promoters in poultry diet since 1st January 2006. The removal of AGPs from diet resulted in substantial increase in sub-clinical infection, poor performance, reduced digestibility and increase mortality poultry. So many researchers has been tried several herbal products and organic acids to replace antibiotic growth promoter (AGP).
Medium chain fatty acids (MCFA; C6-C12) are known to have unique nutritional, physiological and antimicrobial properties. MCFA like caproic, caprylic, capric and lauric acids are one of the organic acids that have higher efficacy than short chain fatty acid. Efficacy of organic acids increases along with increase in its carbon atom chain length and the degree of unsaturation. As MCFA have ability to cross semipermeable membrane of bacteria in un-dissociated and fat soluble form which enter cytoplasm of bacterial cell and suppress cytoplasmic enzymes and nutrient transport resulting in cellular death. Thus, medium chain fatty acid has better effect on growth and bactericidal property.
On other hand, the anionic part of dissociated MCFAs intercalate with the bacterial DNA, thereby inhibiting DNA replication and thus bacterial growth. Besides the direct lytic effects of MCFA, the activation of bacterial autolytic enzymes might also play a role in the activity against pathogens. Along with this, MCFA inhibits the production of lipases by the bacteria. As lipases are needed to allow the bacteria to attach to the intestinal wall, this process will be prohibited and the bacteria will be washed out. Furthermore, the antibacterial potency of MCFAs is believed to exceed that of SCFAs. Because, the weak acid nature of most of MCFA is considered a primary determinant of effectiveness since it affects the concentration of undissociated acid formed.
The milk and coconut oil are major sources of medium chain fatty acids. The medium chain fatty acids are also utilized faster than long-chain fatty acids. Lauric acids disrupted the cytoplasm structure of bacterial cells using coconut oil and it’s most active individual fatty acids. Lauric acid was the most inhibitory to Clostridium growth also, has promising antimicrobial properties against E.coli and campylobacter. Medium chain fatty acids reduces the abdominal fat and increases breast yield in broilers and in lower levels, these acids may be even utilized as nutrients. A few studies have shown that feeding MCFAs have positive impact on body weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), immune system, gut health and survival rate of broilers.
Thus, considering above facts appraise the effect of dietary supplementation of medium chain fatty acids can be used as a replacement for antibiotic growth promoters in order to achieve optimum growth performance and better gut health in broiler chickens.
