Effects of the Addition of Probiotic Containing both Bacteria and Yeast or an Antibiotic on Performance Parameters, Mortality Rate and Antibiotic Residue in Broilers

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of supplementing a commercially available probiotic (an Active Elements®; AE) containing Lactobacillus plantarum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an antibiotic; Chlortetracycline (CTC), and the probiotic plus antibiotic, via the drinking water on broiler production performance, mortality rate and the antibiotic residue in meat. Four hundred one-day-old male Cobb broiler chicks were randomly allocated to 4 treatments; a non-treated control, a 0.05% CTC, a 1:500 AE, and a combination of CTC and AE. Chicks were fed with a commercial broiler diet ad libitum. They were reared under an environmentally controlled house for 6 weeks. The data revealed that supplementation with probiotic (group 3-4) resulted in significantly higher accumulated body weight gain during the first two weeks. The final body weight, final body weight gain, feed intake and FCR were not significantly different among treatments. The mortality rate was highest in the combination group, followed by control and the AE-treated group. The antibiotic residues in the breast tissue sampling at the 6th week of age were less than 50 μg/kg tissue. The gross and histological examinations revealed no obvious pathological lesions in any treatment. In conclusion, this study indicated that administration of this probiotic to broiler chickens early in life had beneficial effects on weight gain. The FCR and antibiotic residues of the probiotic-supplemented birds were similar to antibiotic-supplemented birds. The percentage mortality was less than the non-treated group. Therefore, this probiotic may be used as an alternative to replace the adverse effect of antibiotic.