Effects of antibiotic, probiotic and prebiotic supplementation in broiler diets on performance characteristics and apparent nutrient digestibility

A total of 180-day-old Arbor Acres broiler chicks were used to determine the effects of antibiotic, probiotic and prebiotic supplementation in broiler diets on performance characteristics and apparent nutrient digestibility in an 8-week feeding trial. The birds were randomly allotted to 5 dietary treatments including control diet (basal diet without additives), OXYT diet (basal diet with 600 ppm of the antibiotic oxytetracycline), GRO-UP diet (basal diet with 500 ppm probiotic), and MOS-500 or MOS-1000 diets (basal diet with 500 or 1000 ppm mannan oligosaccharide prebiotic, respectively) with 3 replicates of 12 birds each. No significant difference (P>0.05) was observed in the performance of broiler chickens except for reduction in mortality in the birds fed with feed additives. There were significant (P<0.05) differences in the apparent nutrient digestibility at the end of weeks 4 and 8. Inclusion of dietary prebiotic and probiotic had no significant effect on broiler performance but reduced mortality rate and enhanced apparent nutrient digestibility.Keywords: antibiotic, probiotic, prebiotic, broilers, performance, nutrient digestibilit