Effects of salmonella inhibitors on growth performance, relative organ weight, meat quality, salmonella populations, fecal gas emission, and blood profiles in broilers

Abstract Text:

A total of 768 male and female ROSS308 broiler chicks [1 day old, body weight (BW) = 37 ± 0.08 g] were used in this 5-week trial (6 treatments with 8 replications/treatment and 16 chicks/pen) to evaluate the effect of salmonella inhibitors on growth performance, relative organ weight, meat quality, salmonella populations, fecal gas emission and blood profiles in broilers. A corn–soybean meal-based diet was formulated as a control diet and dietary treatments were as follows : i) NC, Basal diet (without antibiotics and B. subtilis); ii) PC, NC + 0.1% Antibiotics (virginiamycin); iii)A, NC + 0.1% B. subtilis 1.0×10¹⁰cfu/kg; iv)B, NC + 0.1% B. subtilis RX7 1.0×10¹⁰cfu/kg; v) C, NC + 0.1% B. subtilis B2A 1.0×10¹⁰cfu/kg; vi) D, NC + 0.1% B. subtilis RX7 1.0×10⁹cfu/kg. e broilers were weighed and feed intake were recorded on d 14 and 35 for calculating BW gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR). At d 35, 2 birds were randomly selected from each replication (16 broilers/treatment) and slaughtered by cervical dislocation for meat quality. During d 1-14, BWG was higher (393, 390 vs. 375 g; P <0.05) in B and C treatments than NC treatment, moreover, NC treatment got higher (1.52 vs.1.45; P <0.05) FCR than B treatment. During d 15-35, NC treatment group had higher FCR (1.81 vs. 1.72; P <0.05) than C treatment fed broilers. Overall, chickens fed with C diet had higher (1648 vs. 1569 g; P <0.05) BWG and lower (1.65 vs. 1.74; P <0.05) FCR than those fed with NC diet. No significant difference (P >0.05) was observed in meat quality, relative organ weight, gas emission and blood profiles among treatments. However, the salmonella populations of chickens fed with NC diet was higher (2.94 vs. 2.50, 2.47, 2.51, 2.51 log₁₀cfu/g; P <0.05) compared with those fed with PC, B, C and D diets in large intestine, moreover, the salmonella populations of NC treatment was higher (2.81 vs. 2.56, 2.48, 2.48, 2.55, 2.47 log₁₀cfu/g; P <0.05) compared with other five treatments in small intestine. In conclusion, salmonella inhibitors partially improved BWG, FCR, while decreasing salmonella populations in intestine without any adverse effect on meat quality, relative organ weight, gas emission and blood profiles in broilers.

Keywords:

blood profiles, broilers, growth performance, meat quality, salmonella inhibitors, salmonella populations