The effects of biotine on growth performance and foot dermatitis in broiler

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of biotin on growth performance, foot dermatitis and its relationship with physiological and biochemical parameters. In the study, 240 ROSS-308 male and female broiler chicks were used as animal material. In the experiment, the group without biotin (0) was the control group and the groups with the biotin at 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 mg/kg were the treatment group. The trial lasted 42 days. At the end of the experiment, biotin supplementation had no significant effect on body weight gain, feed consumption, feed efficiency rate, some edible internal organ weight and ratios and carcass yield (P>0.05). In the study, the lowest mortality rate with 20-22 % was observed in the groups receiving biotin supplementation, while the highest mortality rate was observed in the control group (32 %). At the end of the experiment, a, b, c H and pH color values of breast meat in broiler chickens were significantly affected by biotin additive (P<0.05). The highest color tone angle value (H) in breast meat was seen as 77.16 and 75.55 in the group that received 0.2 mg/kg biotin supplementation and control groups, while the lowest color tone angle value (H) was determined as 70.57 in the group receiving 0.8 mg/kg biotin supplementation. Breast meat pH valueswere found to be the lowest in the control group with 4.80, and the highest in the group receiving biotin supplementation with 0.8 mg/kg (P<0.05). Blood plasma and hemogram values of hemoglobin, HCO3pst, cCa, Anion K, AnionGap, sSO2 concentrations were not statisticall ysignificant (P>0.05). On the other hand, the difference between the groups in terms of HCO3p and CtCO2b concentrations was statistically significant (P<0.05). In the present study, the mortality rate in the groups receiving biotin supplementation was lower than in the control group. This proves the necessity of the addition of biotin in the broiler diets. Further studies with higher doses of biotin are needed. Keywords: Biotin, Blood values, Broiler, Dermatitis, Performance parameters,