| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of four prebiotic and
probiotic treatments on Cobb 500 broilers under gastrointestinal (GI) stress induced by a
double coccidiosis vaccination at Day (D) 1 and again on D 7, with a mild heat stress
beginning on D 22 of the trial. This study used a Negative Control (NC) treatment (TRT)
to test for a positive response to the GI stress challenge and a Positive Control (PC) basal
diet with 5% DDGS, to represent current industry type diets more closely, and serve as
the control for the 4 antibiotic alternative treatments. The study was conducted using a 4
phase feeding program over 42 D with approximately 3000 broilers housed within 90 pens (3’x 6’) of a single tunnel ventilated rearing barn located at the TAMU Poultry Science Research Farm. The hypothesis was to determine if prebiotics and/or probiotics can be effective alternatives to the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in broilers.
Dependent variables analyzed on D 21 for cumulative weight gain, and
cumulative feed to gain showed MicroSaf as the best performing. For cumulative weight gain ratios to NC on D 21 the Safmannan was the best, with similar results from Microsaf, and the PC. For the FCR to NC ratio Microsaf performed better, but similarly to the Calsporin, Safmannan, and the PC on D 21. On D 42 with the feed to gain ratio Safmannan, Calsporin, and Microsaf performed significantly better than Celmanax. With the FCR on D 42 Safmannan performed significantly better than Celmanax, but similarly to the other treatments. Based on this data Safmannan, Calsporin, and Microsaf are all viable alternatives to the use of antibiotics for growth promotion. | en |
