Effect of dietary probiotic supplementation on performance of broilers

The present study conducted at a commercial poultry farm at Baffa, district Mansehra, North West Frontier Province of Pakistan during 2005, evaluated the improvement in the nutritive value of broiler finisher rations by adding various levels of probiotic named as Organic Green Culture (OGC), imported from Korea and presently available in the local market. For such purpose, four hundred and forty eight. 21 days-old commercial Hubbard broiler chicks were randomly divided into 4 main groups viz. A.B.C and D. Each main group was further divided into 4 sub- groups lancing 28 chicks each, four experimental rations: I (control), II, III and IV adding probiotic at 0, 1, 2 and 4 g/kg of basal feed ingredients were randomly allotted to these groups. The experiment lasted fur 21 days. The mean values for gain in body weight (GBW) of chicks in groups A, B, C and D were 1287.5, 1302.5, 1427.5 and 1431.3 grams, respectively. The chicks in groups C and D wer e significantly (P less than 0.001) higher in GBW than groups A and B. The mean by matter intake (DM1) values were 2345.0, 2298.5, 2203.8 and 2206.8 grams for the chicks in groups A, B, C and D, respectively. The chicks in groups C and D showed significantly (P less than 0.001) less DM1 as compared to the chicks in groups A and B. The mean feed efficiency (FE) values were 1.82, 1.76 for the chicks in groups A and B, while 1.54 and 1.54 for the chicks in groups C and D respectively. The chicks in groups C and D showed significant (P less than 0.001) improvement in FE values than the chicks in groups A and B. It \vas concluded that probiotic addition at 2 g/kg of finisher rations has successfully improved the nutritive value of the finisher rations, which in turn, brought positive change in the overall performance of the experimental birds. In this regard the ration was found to be highly effective, under the conditions of the present experiment. Moreover, these findings have a lso predicted that the claims of the OGC probiotic manufacturer seem to he reliable. Therefore, based on the present findings, it is recommended that adding OGC probiotic @ 2 g/kg in the finisher rations of commercial broilers could be highly effective for the broiler producers of Mansehra District of Hazara Division.