Effect of Dietary Live or Killed Kimchi Lactic Acid Bacteria on Growth Performance, Nutrient Utilization, Gut Microbiota and Meat Characteristics in Broiler Chicken

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary Weissella koreensis (Wk), a prominent kimchi lactic acid bacteria supplementation on growth performance, nutrients utilization, gut microbiota and meat characteristics in broiler chicken. Both live and killed Wk was compared to know which could be more efficacious as a feed probiotics. Three Wk supplemented groups and no Wk supplemented group were designated according to supplementation levels and cell status. Those were; Control (no Wk), 0.1 % live Wk (LWk 0.1), 0.5% live Wk (LWk 0.5) and 0.5% killed Wk (KWk 0.5). Body weight gain and feed conversion efficiency were improved (P0.05) by dietary LWk supplementation. KWk did not exert any benefit on growth performance. Crude protein utilizability of KWk supplemented diet was lower (P0.05) than that of other diets. However, there were no differences among treatments in other nutrients utilization. Serum IgG concentration and relative weight of bursa of Fabricius was highest (P0.05) in broiler chicken fed KWk 0.5 diet. Cecal anaerobic lactic acid bacteria count of LWk groups were higher (P0.05) than those of control and KWk 0.5 groups. Dietary Wk supplementation failed to lower the count of cecal and fecal E. coli. There was no effect of dietary Wk on TBARS values and fatty acids profile of broiler leg meat. However, the dietary supplementation of Wk exerted characteristic difference on electronic nose flavor of broiler meat. This study showed that dietary supplementation of LWk was able to improve body weight gain, feed conversion efficiency and cecal lactic acid bacterial count in broiler chicken. Further, the result of this study implemented that a live kimchi lactic acid bacteria, LWk, but not killed Wk, could be used as a probiotic feed supplement for broiler.