Feeding Malic Acid to Chickens at Slaughter Age Improves Microbial Safety with Regard to <i>Campylobacter</i>

Abstract

This study supplied malic acid-supplemented drinking water to flocks that were naturally Campylobacter-positive and assessed the effect of feeding malic acid to chickens on Campylobacter reduction and poultry production. In Experiment 1, chickens were provided with malic acid-supplemented drinking water for three weeks. The contamination loads of Campylobacter were decreased by 0.91–0.98 log after the first week of use (p Campylobacter carriage was found to be effectively decreased by 1.05–1.55 log (p p p Campylobacter during the chicken rearing period and this method can be applied to promote the safe development of poultry farming and its products.

Keywords

• poultry production
• malic acid
• <i>Campylobacter</i>
• microbial safety