Effects of mannan oligosaccharides on ileal digestibility of nutrients and microbial populations in the ceca of broiler chickens.

Different levels of dietary mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) and Avilamycin administered to commercial broilers were evaluated for their efficacy on performance, ileal digestibility of nutrients and microbial activity in the digestive tract. Dietary treatments included an antibiotic-free diet (CTL−), a positive control (CTL+, 10 mg/kg of Avilamycin), and three antibiotic-free diets containing Active Mos (MOS, 0.1, 0.2 or 0.3% of the diet). Each treatment was randomly assigned to 4 floor pen replicates (20 birds each). In grower and finisher period, weight gain and feed conversion ratio improved by addition of 2 and 3 g/kg prebiotic or avilamicin into basal diet compared with control diet (P 0.05). The digestibility of OM was enhanced (P<0.05) with dietary supplementation of 2 g/kg MOS as compared to the control diet.