Dietary electrolyte balance in chickens

Hi guys, all of you have done a great job in the poultry sector.
Would you please give a complete research paper on comparative efficacy of commercially available acidifire (biotronic) and phytogen (digestarom)?

Broilers exposed to an environmental temperature of 32°C, could have a decreased Feed intake by up to 15%. Heat stress also increases mineral excretion, and decreased serum and liver concentrations of vitamins (mainly Vitamins A, C & E) and minerals (predoimnantly Fe, Zn, Se, and Cr).

As the mobilization of minerals and vitamins increases within the body to compensate the deficiency due to inappetance and also due to more excretion under heat stress. Consequently, the immune response of poultry also goes down as these are responsible for immunity. The exact mechanism of this immune suppression is yet under investigation, however adrenal gland is known to exacerbate serum corticosteroids levels, which cause suppression of cell proliferation factor, or interleukin-2.

In general, Zinc, Copper and Chromium are known to avert heat stress, besides Vitamins A, E & C. Besides, cocktail enzymes are also known to enhance digestibility and thus substitute vitals, due to reduced feed intake (protein digestibility reduces drastically during heat stress).

Thank you, Dr.Puneet. You have in very simple and few words highlighted these basic and yet, forgotten facts of heat stress in poultry. Very often we are tempted to go in for formulations that carry appealing names suggesting that the use of these will work like magic by removing heat stress.

There are plenty of people who advocate as well as use electrolytes but are not aware as to how they work. This is one of the very few articles which goes to say almost everything on electrolytes in very simple terms that could be understood by the layman. The article is timely, very informative and comprehensive except for a few suggestions and comments which have come from some knowledgeable people in this field. Thank you.

Probiotics can also be one of the effective tool to increase digestibility and enhance immunity in the heat stressed broilers.

An kind of stress can cause poor performance of the broiler. It should be avoided at all costs by good management and nutrition including vitamins.

Good Job,
Betaine can be an extremely useful tool as part of a strategy that includes reviewing housing and management practices to combat the effects of heat stress. Trails in some Middle East countries where chicken are exposed to high temperatures ranging from 26°C - 42°C, showed that diets supplemented with Betafin significantly improved body weight and FCR by helping birds to stave off dehydration and maintaining feed intake. The bird’s mechanism for controlling water balance consumes relatively large amounts of energy. However betaine is an osmolyte, which helps the bird retain water more efficiently. Therefore, with betaine in the feed, the bird is able to retain water allowing more energy for growth. It is reported a more clear reduction of 16% to 39% in mortality when betaine was added to the feed. The use of Betafin should be considered an integral part of an overall preventative strategy alongside proven housing and management practices.

Very good article, I would like to draw your atention to use Natural Betaine (Betafin) to reduce the negative afffect of heat stress and as Osmoregulator.

The effect of betaine during heat stress is no doubt a novel effort. But as in most of the trials and tests it has been proved that there is no difference in natural or synthetic betaine in terms of result. Also synthetic betaine is easily available and more price competitive.

Very interesting and very clear article about heat stress!

The dietary electrolyte balance can be easily influenced by choice of raw materials. Of course this choice can be limited in some regions or even due to purchase positions. In that case, a solution is to add an additive to the feed. Sodium formate added at 3 kg/ton, improves dEB with about 45 mEq/ton of feed. Together with the 45 mEq improvement you have the benefits of formate with it as well: in a broiler trial in very hot summer conditions and high humidity a huge decrease of mortality was seen in the broiler group which received sodium formate, compared to a negative and a positive control. Also there was an improvement seen in FCR and droppings.

This trial was carried out in Spain with Imasde.

I disagree with Dr. dipanjal Kakoti
Betaine can be obtained naturally or synthetically, Natural betaine is extracted from sugar beet molasses by using chromatographic separation processes, whereby complex mixtures can be divided and separated to individual components based on their chemical and/or physical characteristics. While, synthetic betaine is produced as the result of a reaction between, Trimethylamine (TMA) and monochloracetic acid (MCA) or Betaine and hydrochloric acid (HCl) or TMA, MCA, ethylene oxide and HCl from chloroacetic acid, sodium hydroxide and trimethylamine. It is usually sold as the hydrochloride salt, (betaine HCl).
When Synthetic betaine included, it adds both betaine and chloride to the final feed. High chloride content – can disrupt cellular water balance and interfere with betaine’s key osmolytic function, leading to wet litter and poorer performance. Also, TMA residues can lead to undesirable ‘fishy eggs’ in layers, particularly in strains of hen deficient in trimethylamine oxidase.

Absolutely correct comment about synthetic betaine. In fact sometimes synthetic betaine may cause more harm if the chloride content is too high. Not only that, if betaine with high chloride content is kept mixed with premixes then it may cause severe damage to the premix. The main constraint towards usage of natural betaine is the price - probably. However, if synthetic betaine with low chloride content is available then it may be highly efficient in alleviating heat stress.

I think along with minerals and vit especially vit C, addition of glucose in drinking water is also a good remmedy in heat stress. This will give extra energy because all of us know panting in broilers lower down the FCR.

As per natural betaine is concerned its nice to see the inputs of Mr. Khaled, but my concern is to the field condition. Where availability round the year and affordability is the question.

To study this question, an in vitro trial was setup to mimic gastric passage. The University of Ghent evaluated the biological equivalence of different betaine sources (monohydrate and anhydrous produced by extraction vs. betaine hydrochloride and anhydrous, produced by chemical synthesis), using Mass Spectromety combined with HPLC analysis in a model that simulates gastric passage.

Results showed that irrespective of the ionic form and production method (natural extraction vs. chemical synthesis) different sources of betaine gave the same analytical results. As after gastric passage both molecules proved to be identical, no differences in biological activity or osmoregulatory function between betaine hydrochloride and betaine anhydrous as an effective feed additive could reasonably be expected.

To Dr Asim - What about using sodium bi carbonate in summer stress?

Surely, there are any number of vitamins, minerals, probiotics and other formulations listed here and elsewhere that can help in relieving heat stress in chicken. More suggestions, especially those based on technical expertise as well as experience will definitely be welcome and helpful. While I agree that these are of immense help, people should not be led away by the false belief that these alone will work wonders in solving the problem of heat stress. I say this because many flock managers look at these as substitutes for what other practical and correct measures can and should be taken in the poultry sheds. I believe that a good understanding of the dynamics of heat stress along with right husbandry practices are the basic essentials of summer management. For example, flock managers should know how to identify the probable deep body temperatures of their birds by looking at the progressive patterns of behaviour of their birds in their response to rising heat because finally it is the deep body temperature that decides on the results- STRESS, RECOVERY or DEATH from heat stress.They should also know what the lethal effects of the different levels of deep body temperatures are when they persist in birds for different stretches of time during the day. Many managers are also not aware of the reasons as to why birds die in large numbers after sunset when the shed temperatures drop considerably. I have also noticed other serious management errors like using the fogging system inside the sheds when the temperatures go very high -without providing fans. In such cases, they are not aware that they are raising the humidity to unhealthy levels without reducing the temperature sufficiently. The resulting situation is often counter productive and even disastrous. Only when these basics are in place, one can surely draw benefits from the several effective chemical therapies that have been suggested in this forum and elsewhere.