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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Effect of dietary inclusion level of a multi-species probiotic on broiler performance and two biomarkers of their caecal ecology

Konstantinos C. Mountzouris A D , Irida Palamidi A , Panagiotis Tsirtsikos A , Michaela Mohnl B , Gerd Schatzmayr C and Konstantinos Fegeros A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Nutritional Physiology and Feeding, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 11855, Greece.

B Biomin Holding GmbH, Industriestrasse 21, 3130 Herzogenburg, Austria.

C Biomin Research Center, Technopark 1, 3430 Tulln, Austria.

D Corresponding author. Email: kmountzouris@aua.gr

Animal Production Science 55(4) 484-493 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN13358
Submitted: 29 August 2013  Accepted: 9 December 2013   Published: 11 February 2014

Abstract

The effect of the dietary inclusion level of a three-species probiotic on broiler performance, nutrient digestibility, caecal microbiota composition and volatile fatty acid (VFA) pattern was evaluated. Day-old Cobb broilers (n = 448) were allocated in four treatments for 6 weeks. Each treatment had four replicates (two per gender) of 28 broilers each. Depending on the type of addition per kg basal diet, treatments were C (no other addition), PL (108 colony forming units of probiotic), PH (109 colony forming units of probiotic) and A (2.5 mg avilamycin). Overall bodyweight gain was better (P = 0.002) in PL and PH than in the control (2082 g) by 8.7% and 7.5%, respectively, while treatment PL did not differ from A (2341 g), which showed the highest bodyweight gain. The ileal and total-tract apparent digestibility of DM and the apparent metabolisable energy content corrected for N improved linearly (P ≤ 0.05) with the probiotic level. Fluorescent in situ hybridisation analysis showed caecal Bifidobacterium levels to increase linearly (P = 0.006) with the probiotic level. Probiotic administration resulted in altered caecal VFA patterns compared with the control. Gender effects (P ≤ 0.05) were noted for caecal levels of C. histolyticum group, Bacteroides fragilis group and Streptococcus spp., while interactions (P ≤ 0.05) of treatment with gender were seen for Bifidobacterium and all VFA components, except for acetate. In conclusion, beneficial effects on bodyweight gain, DM digestibility, apparent metabolisable energy content corrected for N, caecal Bifidobacterium levels and VFA patterns were noted with both probiotic inclusion levels.

Additional keywords: caecal microflora, direct-fed microbials, short-chain fatty acids.


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