Late-Breaking: Effect of butyrate and/or tannin extract on the consequences, namely the production results, of a coccidiostatic or a vaccination against coccidiosis in male broilers

In order to overcome the negative effects of a vaccination against coccidiosis, the use of feed additives can be beneficial. In this trial, the effect of a butyrate (B) and/or a tannin extract (T) on male broiler production performances was assessed while mixing a coccidiostatic in the feed, vaccinating the broilers or by using none of these two strategies (negative control=C). In total, eight treatments with eight replicates (=pens) of 30 male broilers each, were tested: C, C+vaccination, C+coccidiostatic (diclazuril), C+B, C+vaccination+B, C+coccidiostatic+B, C+vaccination+T, C+vaccination+B+T. The broilers were not inoculated with Eimeria spp. during the trial. A three-phase feeding scheme was used with a starter (0-11d), grower (11-28d) and finisher (28-39d) mash diet. At the end of each period, body weight (BW) and feed intake (FI) were measured per pen, and daily weight gain (DWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated. For statistical analysis, all parameters were analysed by a General Linear Model with treatment as fixed factor and block as a random factor. To have an idea of the differences between the treatments, partial post hoc tests (Tukey) were performed while defining treatment as a combination of two factors (protection and additive). When only B was added, only a significant effect in the finisher period was found for the DWG and FCR, with the vaccinated group having the best production results. When a vaccination was given, in general, the addition of B, T or B+T (depending on the parameter) had a positive influence on the production results, especially in the finisher period.