Efficacy of Lactobacillus acidophilus as Probiotic to Improve Broiler Chicks Performance

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of Lactobacillus acidophilus on performance, carcass characteristics, blood parameters, and intestinal microflora of broiler chicks. The dietary treatments were: basal diet as control ۱; basal diet plus ۱g. kg-۱ of a commercial probiotic Bioplus۲; basal diet plus ۱۰ and ۲۰ g kg-۱ fermented milk that contained ۲×۱۰۸ cfu g-۱ Lactobacillus acidophilus. To evaluate the effect of water alone on chick performance, equal volume of water in ۲۰ g fermented milk was added to each kg of the basal diet (control ۲). A total of ۲۸۰ one-day old male broiler chicks were randomly allocated to ۵ experimental groups of ۴ replicates of ۱۴ chicks each. The chicks were grown to ۴۲ d of age. The result of the experiment indicated that feed intake in chicks fed diet supplemented with commercial probiotic was significantly higher than L. acidophilus probiotic. Weight gain for the chicks fed with the diet that contained ۲۰ g kg-۱ fermented milk was higher than the control chicks, in the first ۳ weeks. There was no significant difference in feed conversion and weight of organs. The number of Lactobacilli in ileum and colon were higher in L. acidophilus treated birds than the control group and also the number of Coliforms was lower, but the effects were not statistically significant. The levels of blood cholesterol, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotrasferase and alkaline phosphatase were the highest in the control group, but the effect was statistically significant only for ALT measured at ۲۱ d of age.

Keywords:

probiotic , Broiler chicken , Lactobacillus acidophilus