THE PROBIOTIC MIXTURE X FEEDING EFFECT ON THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF BROILER CHICKEN DIGESTIVE TRACT

Funding Information: This study was funded by the ESF project ‘Transition to the new doctoral funding model at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies’ (No. 8.2.2.0/20/I/001), Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies program ‘Realisation of Fundamental research at LLU’ project G7 ‘Changes in postnatal ontogenesis, health status and greenhouse gas emissions of broiler chickens after addition of a new composition of probiotic mixture to bedding and feed’ Publisher Copyright: © 2022, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies. All Rights Reserved.The issue of antibiotic resistance has become more pressing in the last decades. Therefore, substitutes for antibiotics are being sought. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of the mixture x of lactic acid bacteria on development of the broiler chicken digestive tract and the growth. The study was organised in three trials. In each trial, 260 one day old Ross 308 broiler chicks (males and females) were obtained from a commercial hatchery. They were randomly divided in two groups – the control group and the probiotic group. The dietary treatment was basal diet for the control group and basal diet + the mixture X of lactic acid bacteria 4 g 10 kg-1 for the probiotic group. Broilers were raised till day 35. All broilers were weighted on the day 1, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 and 10 birds per treatment were randomly selected and killed by cervical dislocation. The gastrointestinal tract was excised (proventriculus, gizzard, intestines) and weighed with content. Overall, this study achieved significant results of the body weight results in the probiotic and the control groups, 2,835.7g ±161.74 and 2,828.02±115.64, respectively. The body weight of chickens and their gastrointestinal tract parts (proventriculus, gizzard, intestines) did not differ between the probiotic and control groups (p > 0.05).Peer reviewe