Drinking Water Treatment with a Commercial Preparation of a Concentrated Lactobacillus Culture for Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Three hundred male broiler chicks were used to determine the effects of supplying Lactobacillus in the drinking water. The product used, Biomax 40TM, was a fresh-frozen, pure culture of Lactobacillus containing 40 X 10(9) cfu/ml. Water treatments consisted of continuous lactobacilli dosing (CD) and skip-a-day lactobacilli dosing (SAD). A control group (C) received no lactobacilli. Each treatment and control contained two pens of 50 chicks each and were fed for a duration of 7 weeks. At the termination of the experiment, weights of the wet viscera, and wet and dry small intestines of the broilers revealed no significant differences between treatments and control. Surface pH readings taken from crop and duodenum showed that there was no significant difference (P greater than .05). Microbiology performed on duodenal contents revealed higher numbers of lactobacilli for CD and SAD broilers than for C broilers. The liver biotin contents of the lactobacilli-treated broilers were not significantly different from those of the controls. Body weights were not changed by either treatment, although they were greater for the CD broilers than for the SAD broilers. No difference was observed in feed conversion (feed/gain).

The effect of probiotic supplementation on the growth performance, blood biochemistry and immune response of reciprocal F1 crossbred (Rhode Island Red×Fayoumi) cockerels

“…The crossbred Fayoumi )RIR (FIRI) cockerels had significant higher weight gain than RIR )Fayoumi (RIFI) cockerels. Overall, the beneficial effects of probiotic treatments on cockerel's performance parameters are in agreement with some number of other research studies using probiotics in broilers (Kalavathy et al 2003;Kabir et al 2004;Gil De Los Santos et al 2005) compared with studies lacking positive effects (Watkins & Kratzer 1984;Priyankarage et al 2003). Arslan (2004) fed probiotic (L. bulgaricus) to two groups of rock partridges (a control and a treatment group containing 0.15% probiotics) for 12 weeks and observed no difference in live weight, feed intake and feed conversion between the two groups.…”

The effects of Yeasture® at different rearing stages on intestinal microflora and blood biochemical parameters in male and female broiler chickens

“…In the same study, Watkins and Kratzer (1984) observed that using probiotic in the diet decreased harmful bacteria in the intestine in broiler chickens. These results agreed with the results of Nava et al (2005), Line et al (1998) and Wakwak et al (2003) who observed that the use of probiotic in the diet reduced the pathogenic bacteria.…”

Effect of dietary supplementation of Lactobacilli and Streptococci cultures on the performance of broiler chickens

“…Weight gain Watkins and Kratzer (1983) that the broilers fed with dietary supplementation of Lactobacillus culture did not perform well as that of grown in control diet. Current findings could be attributed to a combination of effects of insufficient number of living bacteria in the treatment, broiler strains, growth stage of birds and environmental conditions.…”