Effect of Dietary Supplementation of <i>Bacillus subtilis</i> on Growth Performance, Organ Weight, Digestive Enzyme Activities, and Serum Biochemical Indices in Broiler

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of supplementing Bacillus subtilis and an antibiotic (Zinc bacitracin) in the diet of broilers on growth performance, organ weight, blood metabolites, and digestive enzymes of broiler chickens. A total of 600 1-d Arbor Acres broilers were randomly allotted to five treatments. Each treatment consisted of six replicates with four pens, and each pen had five birds. The chicks were fed (1) the basal diet (control), (2) the basal diet with 500 mg/kg Zinc bacitracin (APZ), (3) the basal diet with B. subtilis at 1 × 108 CFU/g (B.Sut-1), (4) the basal diet with B. subtilis at 3 × 108 CFU/g (B.Sut-3), and (5) the basal diet with B. subtilis at 5 × 108 CFU/g (B.Sut-5). The experiment lasted for 42 days. In this study, the supplementation of diets with B. subtilis (B.Sut-3 and B.Sut-5 groups) increased body weight gain from 1 to 21 days compared with control (p B.Sut-3 group had a significantly heavier bursa of Fabricius than control at 21 days (p B.Sut-5 and APZ groups (p B.Sut-5 and APZ groups at 21 and 42 days (p B.Sut-5 and APZ groups had higher serum lipase, pepsin, and amylase activities (p Bacillus subtilis ATCC19659 at 5 × 108 CFU/g could be applied as an alternative to antibiotics in poultry diets.

Keywords

• <i>Bacillus subtilis</i>
• growth performance
• organ weight
• blood indices
• digestive enzyme activity