Effects of Sodium Butyrate on Gut pH value, Gut VFA and Cecal Microflora of Broilers

A feeding research was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplement of Sodium Butyrate (SB), either powder (uncoated) or coated on Gut pH value, Gut VFA (volatile fatty acid) and Cecal Microflora in broilers. Four hundred and eighty one-day-old AA broilers were randomly divided into four treatments, each treatment consisted of three replicate pens of forty chickens each. Broilers were fed the following diets: A) Ctr: control diet (without any SB and antibiotics); B) Antibiotic: supply antibiotics (Zinc Bacitracin 40 mg/kg + Colistin Sulfate 8 mg/kg) into the basal diet; C) PSB: control diet + 200 mg/kg PSB (powder Sodium Butyrate); D) CSB: control diet + 200 mg/kg CSB (coated Sodium Butyrate). 12 broilers were randomly chosen on 14 d and 35 d to determine gut pH value, gut VFA and ceca microflora, respectively. Addition of SB showed a tendency for improved the growth performance, but no significant differences among treatments (P > 0.05) were detected except for feed efficiency in grower period (21 42 d, P = 0.040). Sodium Butyrate could improve the butyrate and tatol VFA concentrations in the three segments of intestine significantly, especially tatol VFA in intestinal segments of 35 d (P < 0.001). The populations of Salmonella (14 d, P < 0.001), Escherichia coli (14 d, P = 0.003) and Clostridium perfringens (35 d, P < 0.001) in the cecum were decreased by supplementation of SB, and Lactobacillus counts in cecum was significantly higher in 14-d-old (P < 0.001) and 35-d-old (P = 0.033) birds fed a SB-supplemented diet compared with control diets. Effects of SB mainly appeared at 35 d in the present study, and it could take place of antibiotics on some degrees.