DIETARY EFFECT OF THE SUPPLEMENTATION OF PROBIOTICS (Lactobacillus fermentum) ON CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKENS

Abstract

One hundred day old Cobb 500 broiler chickens were randomly assigned to five treatments in a completely randomized design to study the effect of dietary probiotics (Lactobacillus fermentum) on carcass characteristics. Treatment 1 served as the control without probiotics (0.000g) while treatments 2, 3, 4, and 5 were diets supplemented with 1.875, 3.750, 5.625 and 7.500 g of probiotics per kg of feed respectively. At the end of the experiment, four birds per treatment were randomly selected for carcass evaluation. The final live body weight was recorded before slaughter. After evisceration, the carcass weight was recorded, and the weights of primal parts, internal organs and abdominal fat were all taken and expressed as a percentage of carcass weight. Data collected were subjected to one-way analysis of variance. The results obtained showed that final live weight, carcass weight, breast weight, thigh weight and abdominal fat were significantly affected (P <0.05) by dietary treatments. It was observed that birds on T5 fed probiotics of 7.500 g/kg feed had a live weight of 3050.00g which was similar to T4 but significantly higher than all the other treatments. Treatment 4 had the highest carcass weight which was followed by treatment 5. Treatment 5 birds recorded the highest (P>0.05) breast and thigh weight when compared to birds in other treatment groups. The birds in the control group (T1) recorded the highest (P>0.05) abdominal fat than other treatments. This invariably implies that the supplementation of this probiotic could reduce abdominal fat deposits in birds.