Physiological and Biochemical Response of Probiotics and Phytogenic Inclusion as Growth Promoters on Growing Male Rabbits

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of the inclusion of herbal supplementation (Thyme) and probiotic lactobacillus acidophilus on productive, physiological and immunological capabilities of growing rabbit after fatting period. It has been used in this research 30 weaning New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits at 35 days of age divided to 5 groups, 6 for each. Group 1 served as control group; Group 2 treated with 20 mg/kg b.w. of thyme aqueous extract; Group 3, 4 and 5 treated with 20, 40, 60 million bacterial count/kg b.w. of lactobacillus acidophilus, respectively. The experiment lasted for 2 month and growth performance, blood samples, liver and brain tissue were collected at the end of experiment. Revealed data demonstrated that body weight, growth performance, body weight gain, liver functions, metabolic function, and oxidative stress markers were generalized stimulated with thyme (20 mg/kg b.w.) and probiotics low dose (PBLD,20 million bacterial count/kg b.w) and confirmed via liver histological examination. In contrast probiotics medium dose (PBMD, 40 million bacterial count/kg b.w) and Probiotics high dose (PBHD, 60 million bacterial count/kg b.w.) disrupt most physiological, biochemical and histological parameters. Thus, the study concluded that thyme (20 mg/kg b.w.) and probiotic low dose (20 million bacterial count /kg b.w.) have powerful stimulatory effect in physiological and immunological performance after two months of treatments.