IPB Students Utilizes Lime as Antibiotic Substitute for Poultry

Broiler chicken is one of animal protein sources for the people of Indonesia. Broiler chicken has a fast-growing period because its intensive care to avoid diseases.

Antibiotic is given as an effort to prevent the chicken from getting a disease. Unfortunately, most antibiotics cause a residue in the chicken carcass that can also affect the consumer of the meat. Thus, since 2017, the usage of antibiotics as a growth promoter for broiler chicken had been restricted. That restriction worries the chicken farmers.

A group of students from the Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), tried to solve the problem by giving acidifier to the chicken. Through Student Creativity Program in Research (PKM-P) 2017, Khamdan Hidayat, Slamet Wibowo, and Laila Atika created a natural acidifier from a lime juice as antibiotic for broiler chicken.

Acidifier is an organic acid that can enhance digestibility by increasing the performance of digestive enzymes, lowering pH in the intestine, and maintaining microbial balance in the digestive tract. The students found that lime juice contains lactic acid and citric acid that can be used as an acidifier.

"Because of that, we did this research to identify the influence of acidifier usage from a lime juice towards the decrease of E.coli bacteria in the digestive tract and also to identify the weight gain of broiler chicken," said Khamdan, the team leader. (CN)