Effect of probiotic and different sources of fat on performance, carcass characteristics, intestinal morphology and ghrelin gene expression on broiler chickens

Abstract

The effect of Lactofeed probiotic and different sources of fat on performance, carcass characteristics, intestinal morphology and ghrelin gene expression of broiler chickens was studied in an experiment using a total of 240 one-day-old male chickens from commercial strain (Ross 308) in a completely randomized design via 6 treatments with 4 replicates (10 birds per replicate). The experimental diets included: (1) basal diet (control); (2) diet containing 3% animal fat from tallow (fat); (3) diet containing 3% plant oil from soybean (oil); (4) control + probiotic; (5) probiotic + (fat) and (6) probiotic + (oil). The results showed some improvement in performance in the third group (P<0.05). A significant difference in the length, width and depth of crypt was observed between the treatments 3 and 4, and the control group (P<0.05). There was a significant difference in ghrelin gene expression of the treatments 2 and 4 in comparison with the control group (P<0.05). The results generally showed that there were benefits from the separate use of probiotic and soybean oil in the diet of broiler chicken.

Keywords

• broiler
• fat
• feed intake
• lactofeed
• performance