Effect of aqueous probiotics (Lactobacillus fermentum) on growth performance and apparent nutrient digestibility of Cobb 500 broiler chickens

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of aqueous probiotics (Lactobacillus fermentum) supplementation on growth performancee and apparent nutrients digestibility of Cobb- 500 broiler chickens. One hundred fifty-day old chicks were purchased from Olam Farm limited were randomly divided into five treatments, each group was replicated three times with ten birds per replicate using completely randomized design. Treatment 1 served as the control group, that is, without probiotic supplementation, Treatment 2 received probiotics(Lactobacillus fermentum) of 7.5g/4 litres of water, Treatment 3 received 15 g/4 litres of water, Treatment 4 received 22.5 g/ 4 litres and Treatment 5 received 30 g/4 litres of water. Data on daily water intake, daily feed intake, weekly body weight, weekly body weight gain and weekly feed conversion ratio were collected. All data collected were analysed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results obtained on growth performance showed that the dietary treatments influenced (p<0.05) final weight, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio. Birds on 30g/4 litres did better than other treatments, with a final weight of 2984.00 g, weight gain of 2764.10 g and feed conversion ratio of 1.55. The apparent nutrients digestibility showed that dietary treatments affected all the nutrient digestibility parameters measured. Dry matter, crude protein, crude fibre, ether extract, ash and Nitrgen free extract (NFE) were better digested with 7.5 g/ 4 litres of water of Lactobacillus fermentum probiotic.