Abstract

This study investigated the effects of elevated levels of chemical water pollutants on broiler performance parameters and the therapeutic efficacy of norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin antibiotics. A total of 308 one-day-old Cobb 500 broiler chicks were randomly distributed into 12 experimental groups, exposed to varying concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS: 1560 mg/L), hardness (960 mg/L), chlorides (640 mg/L), nitrites (0.1269 mg/L), and sulphates (877 mg/L) in drinking water, with and without Custovac® water stabilizer treatment. Performance parameters including body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were monitored for 5 weeks. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was employed to determine peak serum concentrations (Cmax) of antibiotics. Results revealed that nitrites significantly improved final body weight (2287.50±41.02 g) and BWG (1756.75±30.97 g) with the best FCR (1.78±0.03) among all treatments. Water hardness with Custovac® treatment also showed favorable performance outcomes. Antibiotic efficacy was notably affected by water quality, with chloride contamination showing the highest norfloxacin Cmax (570.414 ppb) while sulphate contamination demonstrated the lowest (16.38 ppb). Ciprofloxacin concentrations remained relatively stable across treatments (10.94-14.31 ppb). These findings highlight the critical importance of water quality management in poultry production and its significant impact on antibiotic therapeutic outcomes, suggesting that water treatment strategies should be integral components of broiler health management protocols.

Key words: Water quality, broiler performance, antibiotic efficacy, TDS, water hardness, nitrites, HPLC analysis, poultry production, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin