Effect of Different Levels of Folic Acid Supplementation in Drinking Water on the Productive Performance of Cobb 500 and Ross 308 Broiler Chickens

• Sabreen Salam Abdel-Zalmi , Emad Abdulgabbar Ali, Nasr Noori Al-Anbari

  Author

The research was conducted in the poultry field of the Department of Animal Production,College of Agriculture - Al-Qasim Green University, from March 20, 2026 to April 16, 2026, with the aim of studying the effect of the type of broiler chicken and the level of organic formic acid and their interaction on a number of productive traits for both Cobb 500 and Ross 308, after exposing each of them to five treatments or levels of formic acid in a factorial experiment design applied with a completely randomized design (CRD) (2 x 5 = 10) with 3 replicates for each treatment with 10 birds in each replicate. the total number of birds is 300 birds. The results showed highly significant differences (P≤0.01) between both broiler breeds, Cobb 500 and Ross 308, in weekly body weight. Cobb 500 breed excelled on the Ross 308 breed throughout all weeks of the study. Furthermore, there was a highly significant variation (P≤0.01) in body weight during weeks 1, 3, 4, and 5, and a significant variation (P≤0.05) in second week, depending on the formic acid treatment. The interaction effect between broiler breed and formic acid treatment on weekly body weight was also highly significant (P≤0.05).

There were highly significant differences (P≤0.01) between cobb 500 and Ross 308 broiler breeds in weekly weight gain rates during the first, second, and third weeks, as well as in cumulative weight gain. Cobb 500 breed excelled on the Ross 308, with weekly weight gain rates of 154.00, 392.67, 672.67, and 2318.00 g, respectively, compared to 143.13, 314.13, and 446.67 g for the Ross 308 breed. The differences between both broiler breeds were significant (P≤0.05) at Fourth week (604.27 g) and highly significant at Fifth week (692.60 g), again favoring the Ross 308 broiler breed. The highest cumulative weight gain was observed in the birds treated with 4% Formic acid. (2426.67 g) with a highly significant difference compared to all other treatments, followed by the 3% and 2% treatments, and the lowest was the control treatment. As for the results of the interaction effect between bird species and formic treatment on cumulative weight gain, the highest rate for Cobb 500 was observed in the 4% formic treatment (2541.33 g) and the 3% formic treatment (2424.67 g). There were significant differences (P≤0.05) between cobb 500 and Ross 308 broiler breeds in feed consumption during the first week (149.73 and 145.47 g, respectively) and the third week (634.93 and 622.73 g, respectively), with cobb 500 breed exhibiting the highest feed consumption. A highly significant effect (P≤0.01) of formic acid treatment was observed in feed consumption during the third week and cumulatively, with birds treated with 4% formic acid achieving the highest consumption rate. The interaction effect between breed and treatment was also highly significant for both the third week and cumulatively. The overall feed conversion ratio was better in Cobb 500 broiler chickens (1.425 kg feed/kg meat) compared to Ross 308. The treatment with 4% formic acid supplementation showed the best feed conversion ratio at five weeks of age (1.651 kg feed/kg meat) and the overall average for the trait (1.376 kg feed/kg meat).  It can be concluded that Cobb 500 broiler chickens receiving 4% formic acid supplementation exhibited the best productive performance among all experimental treatments..

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