Effects of Enterococcus faecium DSM 7134 supplementation on growth performance and organ weights in Cobb broiler chickens

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of probiotic supplementation with Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) on poultry performance. One hundred thirty six, one-day-old male Cobb 500 broiler chicks were randomly divided in two groups: group without probiotic (control) and treated group (experimental) supplemented with E faecium. The effects of probiotics on growth performance such as body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and carcass yield parameters were measured. Significant effects (p<0.05) in BWG (47.30 vs 50.71) and average live weight at sacrifice (2,356.23 vs 2,523.73) were obtained from control and experimental groups. However, no significant effect (p>0.05) was observed in feed intake (4,285.49 g vs 4,097.39 g), FCR (1.88 vs 1.69) and mortality counts (19.12 vs 13.24) between the two groups (control vs experimental).The supplementation of E. faecium in broiler chickens could improve the growth performance, reducing the use of antibiotics that contribute to minimize antimicrobial resistance in poultry industry. Moreover, further investigations on commercial probiotics are needed across farming practices in Algeria.