Growth performance, mucin2 gene expression, morphology of small intestine and intestinal lactobacillus population of broiler chicks fed with triticale-based diets: effects of dietary physical form and dietary inclusion of enzyme and probiotic

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of physical form of diet and dietary inclusion of enzyme and probiotic on growth performance, mucin2 gene expression, morphology of small intestine and intestinal lactobacillus population of broiler chicks fed with triticale-based diets. Six hundred forty 1-d-old broiler chicks were arranged in 8 treatments with 4 replicates (n=20 chicks). This study was done based on a randomized block completely design in a 2×2×2 factorial arrangement with two levels of feed form (pellet and mash), two levels of probiotic (0 and 0.03% diet) and two levels of enzyme (0 and 0.05% diet). Birds fed with pelleted diet had higher weight gain at starter and grower (P0.05) Thus, physical form of diet plays important role in improving performance and gene expression in birds fed with triticale-based diets.

Keywords

• broiler chicks
• di-pro probiotic
• mucin2 gene
• pellet
• triticale
• weight gain