Nutritive value of skimmed milk and whey, added as natural probiotics in broiler diets

Abstract EN

Present study investigated the effect of adding either commercial or natural probiotics to broilers diets on growth performance, nutrients digestibility and economic efficiency.

Avi-Bac (a probiotic product of concentrated lactic acid bacteria and enzymes) was used as a commercial probiotic, while fresh skimmed milk and whey were used as a natural probiotics.

Nine hundred one-day-old unsexed Hubbard broiler chicks were randomly distributed into 6 experimental groups, of 150 broilers, with 3 replicates for each treatment group.

All diets were formulated to contain the tested levels of both commercial and natural probiotics and were fed in a mash form.

The experimental diets were fed in 2 phases: grower (1-4 wk) and finisher (5-6wk).

Avi-Bac was used at level of 0.1 %, while skimmed milk or whey were added at levels of 0.5 or 1.0 % of the diet.

Water and feed were offered ad-libitum throughout the experimental period, which lasted 6-weeks.

Broilers receiving the diets supplemented with commercial and natural probiotics showed significantly (P < 0.05) improved growth performance including body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared with those fed the basal diet (control).

Broilers fed 1 % whey diet consumed more feed (P < 0.05) and had greater body weight gain than the control group.

Feed / gain ratio improved significantly (P<0.05) with 1 % whey diet compared with the control.

The digestibilities of organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE) and nitrogen free extract (NFE) and nitrogen balance increased with 1 % whey supplementation.

However, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in crude fiber digestibility.

Also, the data showed that adding both natural or commercial probiotics to broiler diets improved the average values of calculated economic efficiency.

The obtained results indicated that natural or commercial probiotic can be used as a growth promoter in broiler diets and it can improve performance, nutrient digestibility and economic efficiency of broilers.