Response of broiler chickens to dietary supplementation with roxarsone and bacitracin methylene disalicylate in diets containing narasin.

ABSTRACT

Six trials were conducted at different locations to examine the response of broiler chickens to roxarsone and bacitracin in the form of bacitracin methylene disalicylate (BMD) in the presence of the anticoccidal narasin. All diets contained narasin (80 mg/kg) and were fortified with a factorial arrangement of roxarsone (0 to 50 mg/kg) and BMD (0 or 55 mg/kg). Broilers were grown to market weights with narasin and roxarsone removed from the diets for the final 5 days. Addition of both roxarsone and BMD resulted in significant (P less than .05) improvements in body weight and feed utilization. Response to roxarsone for feed utilization was influenced to some extent by the presence or absence of BMD. Although the response to roxarsone was always positive, the degree of response was lessened by the presence of BMD. This resulted in a significant (P less than .10) interaction between roxarsone and BMD for feed utilization but not for body weight.