Effects of various concentrations of butyric acid in broilers - Mike Persia

Atef Abou Zead Thanks Zead for bringing up the question – this has been haunting me for a very long time. From the Chemistry point of View, Calcium Butyrate and Sodium Butyrate has not much difference. For both the pKa is 4.8. However in many markets, often a sales person with the help of the product managements inputs is tempted to promote the Calcium Butyrate by saying Calcium is bivalent hence releases 2 butyric ion when compared against 1 butyric ion released from Sodium Butyrate ( Sodium being Monovalent). Unfortunately from Chemistry point of view this is certainly a misleading claim. Let us see why ? Molecular Weight of Calcium Butyrate = 214.274 g/mol Atomic weight of Calcium = 40.078 g/mol Available Butyric Ion / mol of Ca-butyrate = 214.274 – 40.078 = 174.96 g/mol. Number of Butyric Ions available In 1000 gms of ( 100% pure) Calcium Butyrate = 1000/ 214.274 = 4.6 mols Available Butyric Ion present in 4.6 mol of Ca-butyrate = 4.6 X 174.96 = 804.816 gms. Molecular Weight of Sodium Butyrate = 110.088 g/mol Atomic weight of Sodium = 22.99 g/mol Available Butyric Ion / mol of Na-butyrate = 110.088 – 22.99 = 87.098 g/mol. Number of Butyric Ions available In 1000 gms of ( 100% pure) Sodium Butyrate = 1000/ 110.088 = 9.08 mols Available Butyric Ion present in 9.08 mol of Na-butyrate = 9.08 X 87.098 = 797.36 gms. So the difference of butyric ion released by 1000 gm of Calcium butyrate is just about 7.456 gms which is perhaps not very significant while considering the fact that the Ionisation potential of Sodium is 11 eV while Calcium is 20 eV. Which means Sodium butyrate will dissotiate much faster almost at double the rate of Calcium Butyrate, with lower energy requirement. Keeping the above in view there is no much difference in terms of Sodium Butyrate and Calcium Butyrate salt Chemistry and both are almost similar. The twist in the story comes when we consider the coating system. Two most prevalent coating systems available in the market are: 1) Hydrogenated Vegetable Fat 2) Glyco mono Sterate (GMS) GMS can be broken down only by Pancreatic Lipase and perhaps provides a better protection of the Butyric Salt in the fore-gut ( by providing a Fore-gut Bypass kind of a mechanism), which enables and ensures release of the Butyric Ion in the Midgut and Hind Gut area which is desirable. Saying so Hydrogenated Vegetable Fat coating ( with various innovative terms like matrix coated, matrix encapsulated etc. etc. ) perhaps would provide reasonable efficiency as well. What I find more confusing is the concentration of Butyric Salt is different in various brands offering 30% onwards, and potentially another factor that should be looked into, while choosing a product and its dose. Would be happy to know more on the above – as there is lots of confusion regarding the claims made by various commercially available brands in the market which hovers around the percentage availability of the Salt, its coating material and technology and offcourse weather it’s a Sodium Salt or a Calcium Salt.

Amit Goswami oops Apologies. The Ionisation potential of Na is 5.139 while that of Calcium is 6.113 eV. Sorry for the mistake

Thanks

Amit Goswami Thanks for your information. The lonisation potential both Na and Ca at above meaning dissociate ability and energy requirement doesn't different? The quantity of butyric acid release quite similar at the same time. Hope to get feedback soon. Thank you.

dan hofer Difficult question! I have found companies suggesting as low as 250 gm / mt for some brands while few recommending 1 kg / mt while few others recommending 2 kg or even 3 kg per mt in poultry. I am convinced that I am now totally confused on the dose recomendation. Perhaps you should enquire with the producer of the particular brand. I wish i could have been more helpful

Ozgur Gultekin, DVM Pleasure :)

Kausar Shaikh: Ideally, the higher concentration means better efficacy for all products (including Sodium Butyrate), however, there are various factors that may have a say in the performance. Few of the important parameters are below:

1) Coating system - This is important because with pKa value of 4.82, Sodium Butyrate will get converted into Butyric acid in the Foregut (if coating material or quality of coating is not appropriate) , and we will encounter loss of concentration ( partial or total) of Sodium Butyrate in this area of the GIT of the bird - and may result in low availability of butyric acid in midgut and hind gut which is the site of action for the molecule.

2) Expanding on point number 1, please look into the coating material used. If the melting point, elasticity, spread-ability, mechanical strength etc. is not reasonably good, there could be damage in the coating of Sodium Butyrate, then during blending (feed mixing) and pelleting process the the coating may get damaged resulting of release of Sodium Butyrate in the fore gut (instead of reaching the mid gut and hind gut where it is required most)

3) Sodium Butyrate is also very hygroscopic, and higher the concentration, lower is the percentage of coating material (or sometimes no coating). This may result in formation of lumps in the product itself leading to uneven distribution of the product in feed mixing/blending. In such case some of the birds may receive high quantity of Sodium Butyrate, while others in the flock may receive low or no Sodium Butyrate.

There could be various more factors which may have an impact on the efficacy - however, as you may see, the above could have a direct impact on the dose/MT of feed.

For ethical reasons, It may not be appropriate for myself to pin-point further on your query in this forum. Such discussions may happen on one to one interactions only.

Amit Goswami Thanks Mr.Amit