Abstract
Two experiment were conducted to evaluate the feeding value of probiotics for the broiler chicks. Basal diets based on corn and soybean meal with no supplemental probiotics contained 21% dietary crude protein for the first 3 weeks and 19% for the rest of two weeks. In experiment 1, 0.2 % probiotics containing 2X 10 6 cfu /ml of Saccharomyces cerevisiae(S), Clostridium butyricum(C), Lactobacillus acidophilus(L), Bacillus polyfermenticus(B) were respectively supplemented to control groups. Two hundred day-olo chicks were randomly assigned to five treatments which had four replicates of 10 chicks each per treatment. Weight gain, feed consurnption, feed conversion ratio (FCR) were weekly measured for 5 weeks. The number of intestinal microflora was examined at the end of experiment. In experiment 1, Weight gain and feed intake of chicks fed probiotics exhibited a significant response compared to those of control for the first three weeks(P<0.01). Weight gain of S or C treatments was higher than that of control for the rest of two weeks, whereas it was significantly lower in L and B treatments than S or C treatments (P<0.01). Chicks fed S or C was significantly increased weight gain(P <0.05) compared to that of control at five weeks of age. FCR of C treatment seemed to improve relative to other supplemental probiotics groups, but was not significantly different. The number of intestinal anaerobes and Lactobacillus in large intestine of chicks fed probiotics supplements was significantly decreased compared to control groups(P<0.01). In experiment 2, there were six treatments: Ti, control; T2, 0.2%S; T3, 0.2%S + 0.2%C; T4, 0.2%S + 0.2%L; T5, 0.2%S + 0.2%B; T6, 0.2%S + 0.1%C + o.i%L + 0.1%B. Control diet based on corn soybean meal contained 21% CP and 3,2OOca1 /g ME with no probiotics. There were four replicates of 10 chicks each per treatment. Weight gain of chicks fed probiotics tended to increase compared to control groups, but were not significantly different between them. FCR was also improved in probiotics treatments. However, there were no significant differences between probiotics supplementation and control groups. The results of these experiments indicated that dietary supplemental probiotics improved weight gain, feed efficiency for the first three weeks of young broiler chicks, whereas supplementation of C, L, B combined probiotics to young broiler chicks was not superior to those of single or two probiotics.
