Performance and Nutrient Digestibility of Broiler Chickens Fed Graded Levels of Dietary Supplementation of Lactobacillus acidophilus

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of graded levels of Lactobacillus acidophilus as growth promoting agent on growth performance and nutrient digestibility of broiler chickens. 240-day old Arbor Acre broiler chicks were allocated to four treatments; each treatment had six replicates with ten birds per replicate. The experimental diets were: Treatment 1- basal diet (control), Treatment 2- basal diet + 1 x 10⁸ CFU Lactobacillus acidophilus/kg, Treatment 3- basal diet + 2 x 10⁸ CFU Lactobacillus acidophilus/Kg, and Treatment 4- basal diet + 3 x 10⁸ CFU Lactobacillus acidophilus/kg. There were no significant differences in the body weight gain of the groups fed lactobacillus acidophilus supplemented diets, but their values were higher (P<0.05) than the value observed for the control. Feed intake followed the same pattern with body weight gain with the values got in the supplemented groups higher (P<0.05) than the control. Feed conversion ratio values obtained in the groups fed the treated diets were statistically similar (P<0.05), but better (P<0.05) than the value got in the control. The result of nutrient digestibility shows that the treatment had no effect on metabolizable energy digestibility, while crude protein, ether extract and crude fibre digestibility followed the same pattern, with the values derived in T2, T3 and T4 statistically similar (P>0.05), but higher (P<0.05) than the observation in T1. It is therefore inferred from this study that Lactobacillus acidophilus is a good growth promoter than can always be used to improve broiler chickens’ performance and digestibility.