Efficacy of Antibiotic, Probiotic, Prebiotic and Synbiotic on growth performance, organ weights, intestinal histomorphology and immune response in broiler chickens

A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementations of antibiotic, probiotic, prebiotic and synbiotic on broiler performance, histomorphologic measurements of small intestine and immune response. A total number of 432, day-old broiler chicks (Ross308) were obtained and randomly assigned to 1 of 9 dietary treatments for 6 weeks. The dietary treatments were: 1) basal diet; 2,3) basal diet plus (400, 600) g of phosphomycin product/ton of starter and grower feeds, respectively, 4,5) basal diet plus (150,200) g of probiotic product/ton of the starter feed and (100,150) g/ton of the grower feed, respectively, 6,7) basal diet plus (500, 1000) g of a prebiotic product /ton of starter and grower feeds, respectively, 8 and9) basal diet plus (1000,1250) g of synbiotic product /ton of the starter feed and (500,750) g/ton of the grower feed, respectively. Birds supplemented with the synbiotic had a greater (P < 0.01) feed intake and body weight gain compared with those of others treatments. Feed conversion rate was lower in birds supplemented with all additives than in control birds (P < 0.01). The carcass weight was significantly increased in feed additives compared with that of control treatment group (P < 0.05). The villus height was significantly increased in feed additives compared with that of control group (P < 0.01). Synbiotic treated animals showed increase (p<0.05) in antibody titers against NDV compared to those of the control groups at 28, 35 and 42 days of age. The result of the present study revealed that these products had promising effects as alternatives for antibiotics in parallel to demand for elimination of growth-promotant antibiotics.