ISSUE FOCUS 40 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE January 2023 for the control birds and 47.17 days for the birds fed the feed additive. Daily weight gain was similar between the two treatments with 69.60 g for the control birds and 70.62 g for the additive fed birds. Overall feed conversion was 1.717 for the control birds and 1.671 for the birds fed the additive; an advantage for birds fed the additive of 4.6 points (Figure 1). Weekly mortality, cumulative mortality, and transport mortality were all lower when birds were fed the additive compared to those fed the antibiotic (Figure 2). Because weight gain was maintained when compared to the standard diet and replacing the antibiotic and binder showed improvements in feed efficiency and morality there was also an economic improvement to the producer when the additive was used. This commercial study shows that feeding the additive with multiple modes-of-action can improve efficiencies and performance, which are critical to increasing profits. In this case, the added annual profit for a producer processing 1 million birds per week would equate to approximately USD 6 million. Using an estimated price for the control diet of USD 375 and USD 380 for the additive diet, the return on the cost of the additive vs the antibiotic control diet is approximately 4 to 1. The results from this commercial trial confirm the previous research. The commercial trial showed that feeding an additive with multiple-modes-of action can help sustain performance when an antibiotic is removed from the diet. Figure 1. Feed conversion improved when broilers were fed the Additive versus the Control containing an antibiotic and a mycotoxin binder, both overall or when it was adjusted to a final weight of 3.25 kg. Figure 2. Mortality was lower for birds fed the additive each week and cumulatively by week. Final mortality included birds that died during transportation to harvest.
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