Ameliorative Effects of Antibiotic-, Probiotic- and Phytobiotic-Supplemented Diets on the Performance, Intestinal Health, Carcass Traits, and Meat Quality of Clostridium perfringens-Infected Broilers.

The poultry industry needs efficient antibiotic alternatives to prevent necrotic enteritis (NE) infections. Here, we evaluate the effects of probiotic and/or prebiotic dietary supplementation on performance, meat quality and carcass traits, using only an NE coinfection model, in broiler chickens. Three hundred and twenty-four healthy Ross 308 broiler chicks are allocated into six groups. Taking a 35 d feeding trial, the chicks are fed a basal diet with 0.0, 0.1, 0.5, 0.12, 0.5 + 0.12, and 0.2 g Kg-1 for the control (T1), Avilamycin (Maxus; T2), live probiotic (CloStat (Bacillus subtilis);T3), natural phytobiotic compounds (Sangrovit Extra (sanguinarine and protopine); T4), CloStat + Sangrovit Extra (T5), and spore probiotic strain (Gallipro Tect (Bacillus subtilis spores); T6) treatments, respectively. Occurring at 15 days-old, chicks are inoculated with Clostridium perfringens. The obtained results reveal that all feed additives improve the performance, feed efficiency, and survival rate, and reduces the intestinal lesions score compared with the control group. The T6 followed by T3 groups show a significant (p < 0.05) increase in some carcass traits, such as dressing, spleen, and thymus percentages compared with other treatments. Also, T5 and T6 have significantly recorded the lowest temperature and pHu values and the highest hardness and chewiness texture values compared to the other treated groups. To conclude, probiotics combined with prebiotic supplementation improves the growth, meat quality, carcass characterization and survival rate of NE-infected broiler chickens by modulating gut health conditions and decreasing lesion scores. Moreover, it could be useful as an ameliorated NE disease alternative to antibiotics in C. perfringens coinfected poultry.

Effect of Antibiotic, Phytobiotic and Probiotic Supplementation on Growth, Blood Indices and Intestine Health in Broiler Chicks Challenged with Clostridium perfringens.

This study evaluated the effects of feed additives on the growth, blood biochemistry and intestinal health of broiler chicks. A total of 378 of broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly allotted to seven groups. Chicks were fed a basal diet with 0.0 (control negative), 0.0 (control positive), 0.1, 0.5, 0.12, 0.5 + 0.12 and 0.2 g Kg-1 of Maxus, CloStat, Sangrovit Extra, CloStat + Sangrovit Extra and Gallipro Tech, respectively for 35 days. After 15 days, the chicks were inoculated with Clostridium perfringens. All feed additives were found to enhance growth performance and feed efficiency. The best feed conversion ratio was found in the Negative Control, CloStat + Sangrovit Extra and Gallipro Tect groups, respectively. A notable increase in villus length, total villus area, small intestine weight, ilium weight and total lesion score was found in chicks supplemented with Bacillus subtilis. Besides, the dietary inclusion of phytobiotic compounds showed potential in reducing the serum Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) concentration and increasing the glucose levels. All intestine and liver histopathological signs were reduced in chicks fed a probiotic-supplemented diet. Our findings indicate that supplementation with probiotics and phytobiotics alone or in combined form can be used to enhance performance, intestine health and blood constituents against C. perfringens infection in broiler chicks.

Effect of a low-energy and enzyme-supplemented diet on broiler chicken growth, carcass traits and meat quality.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of a low metabolizable energy (low-ME) diet supplemented with a multienzyme blend (KEMZYME®) on the growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality of chickens. A total of 108 broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly allocated to three experimental groups with six replicates per treatment and five birds per replicate; the groups were treated as follows: a control diet with no additive and standard metabolizable energy (ME; 3200 kcal kg - 1 ); a low metabolizable energy (low-ME; 3000 kcal kg - 1 ) diet; and a low-ME diet  +  0.5 g kg - 1 diet of enzyme (low-ME-Enz). Live body weight (LBW) at 43 and 47 d and body weight gain (BWG) during the periods from 38 to 43, 43 to 47 and 33 to 47 d decreased with the low-ME and low-ME-Enz diets in comparison with the control-diet ( p < 0.05 ). The values of the feed conversion ratio (FCR) were significantly increased with low-ME diets with or without enzyme at all growing stages. There were no significant differences among treatments in terms of carcass traits. With the exception of the jejunum weight, dietary treatments did not affect any digestive tract segments. Meat hardness decreased with the low-ME-Enz diet compared with the other diets ( P = 0.039 ). Meat yellowness of the breast muscle increased ( P = 0.001 ) with the low-ME-Enz diet in comparison with the other treatments at 24 h post-slaughter. In conclusion, the low-ME diet supplemented with KEMZYME® did not influence most of performance parameters and carcass traits of chickens; however, adding enzymes to the low-ME diet is an effective strategy to improve the meat quality criteria and small intestine characteristics.