BACTERIAL PROBIOTIC ADDITIVE (PEDIOCOCCUS ACIDILACTICI) AND ITS IMPACT ON BROILER CHICKENS HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE

SUMMARY Antibiotics were very important pieces of the puzzle that enabled the poultry production to move from a backyard flock based industry to the large-scale production facilities of today. Public health professionals have suggested that the use of subtherapeutic antibiotics in animal production may be partially responsible for the development of antibiotic resistant bacterial populations. The probiotics may be substituted by antibiotics (growth promoting) in certain cases. Pediococcus acidilactici is a bacterial probiotic used in this experience.16000 broiler chickens were assigned in two experimental groups: treatment (10 9 cfu/kg of feed of Pediococcus acidilactici MA18/5M) and control. In each group 8000 broiler chickens were allocated in the same batch and divided by a physical barrier. Individual live weight of a sample of 200 birds for each group from day 0 to day 56 was measured weekly. Feed intake, feed efficiency, mortality, carcass quality, serum lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides) and number of white blood cells, were recorded per group. The administration of Pediococcus acidilactici affected positively the growth performance of broilers (2586.43 vs 2252.79 g and feed conversion ratio (2.00 vs 2.5). There were no significant difference between groups in dressing, breast meat and thigh percent, at the end of day 56. Analysis of variance showed significant difference between treatments for serum lipids (p≤0.01). Mortality was almost similar in both groups (6.56 vs 6.51). The numbers of white blood cells were significantly affected by dietary treatment.