Ram Chandrakant Kulkarni

A necropsy of buffalo and cattle calves were performed at the site of death on emergency call from animal owner with history of ad libitum grazing on immature Sorghum bicolor plantlets. The affected animals showed clinicals signs mainly such as respiratory distress, staggering gait and muscular tremors before death. The necropsy revealed presence of bright cherry red discolouration of various organs. Ruminal content and crushed Sorghum bicolor leaves from grazed field found positive for hydrocyanic acid by sodium picrate paper test. The confirm history, clinical signs, necropsy and laboratory findings confirmed the diagnosis of Sorghum bicolor poisoning.

1. The fatty acid coated organic acids blend was evaluated for its potential as a growth promoter. 2. A six-week experiment was conducted following a completely randomised design. One-day old broiler chicks (n=384) were randomly divided into four dietary groups (eight replicates per group). Diet treatments were an unsupplemented basal diet or containing 0.3, 0.6, and 1 g/kg of a coated organic acid blend. Birds were evaluated for growth performance, carcass traits, immune-competence, total viable count, and gut villus height. 3. The broiler chickens fed with 1 g/kg organic acids blend showed significantly higher body weight gain with improved feed conversion ratio and lower mortality than those fed the basal diet. 4. The carcass traits vis. eviscerated yield, dressing percentage, breast yield and relative weight of giblets, were significantly better in the group fed with 1 g/kg coated organic acids blend with reduction in abdominal fat. 5. Significantly higher cell-mediated, humoral immune responses and villi height with higher lymphoid organ weight (bursa and thymus) and a significant decrease in the total viable count were recorded in birds fed 1 g/kg organic acids blend. 6. The results indicated that dietary inclusion of coated organic acids blend (1 g/kg) improved growth performance, carcass traits, immunity, and gut health in broiler chicken and reduced total viable count and abdominal fat, indicating its potential role as a promising growth promoter in poultry.