Blood Haematological-Cholesterol Profile and Antibody Titer Response of Broilers with Added Probiotic Containing both Bacteria and Yeast or an Antibiotic in Drinking Water

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the haematological and cholesterol profiles and antibody titer responses to both Newcastle disease (ND) and Infectious bronchitis (IB) vaccines in broiler chickens after drinking water supplemented with either a commercial probiotic (an Active Elements®; AE) containing Lactobacillus plantarum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an antibiotic Chlortetracycline (CTC), or the probiotic plus the antibiotic. Four hundred one-day-old male Cobb broiler chicks were randomly allocated to 4 treatment groups designated as follow: a non-treated control (T1), a 0.05% CTC (T2), a 1:500 AE (T3), and a combination of 0.05% CTC and 1:500 AE (T4), respectively. The chicks were fed with a commercial broiler diet ad lib. and were reared on rice hull bedding in identical floor pens and in an environmentally controlled experimental room for 6 weeks. The result showed that the IB vaccine antibody titers of the probiotic supplemented broilers group at the 28 days of age were significantly (p<0.05) higher than those of the other groups. At 28 days of age, the chickens originated from the probiotic and antibiotic-probiotic combination groups showed significant (p<0.05) increases in the mean red blood cell count, the mean hemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, the number of thrombocyte, monocyte, heterophil but show significant decreases in the number of lymphocyte. Finally at 42 days of age, the total serum cholesterol concentration was significantly higher (p<0.05) in the chickens supplemented with antibiotic and with antibiotic and probiotic as compared to the control chickens. It is concluded that using this probiotic as an alternative for antibiotic in commercial broiler production may be considered.