the effect of vinegar and phytase on performance and immune system of broiler chickens

the present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of vinegar and phytase supplementation on performance, blood lipids, immune system and some carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. for this purpose 240 one-day old male broiler chicks was divided in a 2×2 factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with 4 treatments, 5 replicates and 12 chicks in each and reared throughout 42 day production. the experimental basal diets included vinegar (0 and 2%) and phytase enzyme (0 and 500 u phytase/kg of feed). results indicated that use of 2 percentage of vinegar increased the feed consumption and body weight gain in total expermental period (p˂0.05).vinegar increased the feed conversion ratio from 0 to 14 d of age (p˂0.05) whereas phytase was significantly improved the feed conversion ratio from 0 to 14 d of age (p˂0.05). vinegar decreased the cholesterol, triglyceride, ldl and vldl levels in blood serum (p˂0.05). combine the vinegar and phytase decreased the triglyceride and vldl levels in blood serum (p˂0.05) whereas, phytase alone didn’t have any effect on blood lipids (p˃0.05). also result showed that vinegar increased the relative weight of bursa and spleen (p˂0.05) and phytase increased the relative weight of bursa (p˂0.05). phytase increased the abdominal fat (p˂0.05) while vinegar didn’t have any effect on carcass characteristics (p˃0.05). in conclusion, results showed that use of 2 percentage of vinegar improved the performance and decreased the harmful lipids in blood serum in broilers