THE EFFECT OF PROBIOTICS SUPPLEMENTATION ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF TWO STRAINS OF COCKERELS

In a 2 × 3 factorial design, two hundred and seven 3 weeks old black (Bovan Nera) and white (Gold line) cockerels were randomly assigned to three dietary treatments. The basal diet was based on maize, soybean meal, groundnut cake and wheat offal. Probiotics replaced the wheat offal in Diets I, II and III in proportion of 0, 0.05 and 0.1%. Probiotics contained Lactobacillus acidophilus, Saccharomyces cerevisae and Saccharomyces boulardii. Each diet was offered to 3 pens of 12 black cockerels each or 3 pens of 11 white cockerels each. Starting chicken of both strains responded non-significantly to increasing probiotics concentration in feed intake, body weight gain, and feed/gain ratio. A nonsignificant interaction occurred between strain and dietary probiotics concentration for all response criteria. The slope of regression of body weight changes depending on age was higher for white than black