World Journal of Agricultural Sciences 4 (4): 467-470, 2008
ISSN 1817-3047
© IDOSI Publications, 2008
The Performance, Haematology and Carcass Traits of Broilers as Affected by
Diets Supplemented with or Without Biomin a Natural Growth Promoter
S.B. Akinleye, E.A. Iyayi and K.D. Afolabi
Department of Animal Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract: The ban on the use of synthetic growth promoters in farm animals due to its residual effects on
consumers and resistance build up by pathogens or bacteria necessitates the use of natural symbiotic growth
promoters. Eight weeks feeding trial was carried out on performance, hematological and carcass measures of
one hundred and twenty day old Ross breed broiler chicks maintained on diets containing 1g/kg biomin - a
growth promoter, at both starter and finisher phases. Oral biomin (20mg/bird) were also given at both phases
for three consecutive days. The starter mash fed contained 22% crude protein (cp) and 3,000 kcal metabolizable
energy (ME) per kg of feed while the finisher’s mash contained 17%cp and 3,020 kcal ME/kg of feed. Control
diets without biomin were allowed at both phases. The difference in the performance characteristics,
haemotological parameters and carcass and organ weights of birds on both treatments were not significant
(P > 0.05) after eight weeks of feeding. A mortality of 6.67% was recorded among birds on control diets
as against zero mortality in diets with biomin. Resistance of birds to pathogen or diseases has been
improved by biomin.
Key words: Biomine
Growth promoter
Performance
INTRODUCTION
Broilers
promoter which contain probiotics, prebiotics and
immune-stimulating substances has been advocated,
designed and produced by one company - Biomin in
Europe in 1999. Their product, Biomin is of two types
namely Biomin - imbo and Biomin C - Ex which can be
administered in the feed and water respectively. Biomin
contains a stabilized probiotic strain of Enterococcus
faecium, the prebiotic fructo - oligosaccharides which
out compete pathogens and the immune-stimulating
substances like cell wall fragments.
This study therefore aimed at evaluating the effect of
the use of biomin as a natural growth promoter on the
performance characteristics, haematology and carcass
quality of Ross breed broilers.
A huge amount of antibiotics have been used in
small doses to control diseases and improve performances
in livestock. The use of antibiotics to promote growth and
control diseases in farm animals has been the usual
practice for many decades among farmers. Since early
1940’s, antibiotics started to save many lives and became
a blessed invention for mankind, profitable for the
chemical industry and challenging for scientists [1].
Due to the residual effect of antibiotics in animal
products and the development of resistance to it by some
bacteria especially the multi-drug resistant food born
Salmonella and Clostridia infections, there has been
decreasing acceptance of the additive in many countries
of the world. The antibiotic used as growth promoters for
farm livestock has been gradually restricted and banned
by the European commission and Scandinavian countries
from 2006 [1]. This may lead to a reduction in performance
and increases in food borne diseases in man caused by
Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli from poultry and
increase the curative use of antibiotics.
To overcome these challenges, replacing antibiotic
growth promoters with a symbiotic natural growth
MATERIALS AND METHODS
One hundred and twenty day old Ross breed broiler
chicks were randomly grouped into six groups of twenty
chicks per group and brooded on a partitioned deep litter
house at the University of Ibadan Teaching and Research
farm, Ibadan, Nigeria. Each group represented a replicate
and three replicates were subjected to the same treatment,
making two treatments altogether. Chicks were vaccinated
Corresponding Author: Dr. S.B. Akinleye, Department of Animal Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
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World J. Agric. Sci., 4 (4): 467-470, 2008
Table 1 is the composition of experimental diets as
shown.
Table 1: Composition of Experimental Diets
Broilers starter phase
Broiler finisher phase
--------------------------- -------------------------------Diet 2
Diet 3
Data Collection: The initial body weight of chicks was
measured and subsequently every week till the end of the
study when final body weights were recorded. Daily feed
intake per replicates were measured and recorded as well
as the mortality. From these records, weight gain (g/bird),
feed intake (g/bird/day), feed conversion ratio (FCR),
efficiency of feed utilization (EFU) and metabolizable
energy intake (Kcal/bird/day) were calculated.
Diet 4
Ingredients
Diet 1 (+ Biomin)
( - Biomin) (+ Biomin)
Maize
50.00
50.00
50.00
50.00
Soybean meal
16.00
16.00
16.00
16.00
Groundnut meal
14.43
14.33
3.45
3.35
Cassava meal
10.00
10.00
20.00
20.00
Fish meal (65%)
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
Bone meal
2.50
2.50
2.50
2.50
Broiler Premix
1.50
1.50
2.50
2.50
Salt
0.30
0.30
0.30
0.30
Methionine
0.06
0.06
0.11
0.11
Lysine
0.01
0.01
0.14
0.14
Bromine (1g/kg)
-
0.10
-
0.10
Haematological Study: At the eight week of the
experiment about 4ml of blood was collected from each of
five birds per replicate from their jugular veins for
haematological analysis. Blood samples were analyzed
for packed cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin, red blood cell
(RBC), white blood cell (WBC), lymphocytes, neutrophyll,
total protein, albumin and globulin according to the
procedure of MAFF [2].
Calculated Analysis
Crude Protein (%)
22.01
22.00
17.02
16.98
2998.23
2995.59
3,023.08
3,020.44
Crude fibre(%)
4.12
4.12
2.96
2.96
Ether extract(%)
3.52
3.51
3.09
3.08
Calcium
1.32
1.32
1.31
1.31
ME (Kcal/kg)
Phosphorus
0.95
0.95
0.68
0.68
Methionine
0.41
0.41
0.41
0.41
Lysine
1.05
1.05
1.01
1.01
Carcass Analysis: At the end of the 8th week five birds
from each replicate were tagged and taken at random
from each treatment for carcass analysis or evaluation.
The birds were starved overnight with ample supply of
drinking water. Each bird was weighed separately the
following morning and slaughtered by severing the
jugular and carotid veins after which they were bled.
A period of five minutes was allowed to elapse between
bleeding and thirty minutes scalding at about 80°C.
Plucking of feathers was carried out manually and
carefully to avoid tearing of the skin. A weight of each
bird was taken after bleeding and plucking. The plucked
carcass were dissected and eviscerated by removing
the internal organs, the head and the shank. The head,
shank and the internal organs (i.e. intestine, crop,
proventiculus, gizzard, kidney, liver, heart and lung)
were separately weighted on a sortorious top loading
chemical balance and likewise the eviscerated carcass.
The eviscerated carcass were then carefully cut into
parts (i.e. thighs, drumsticks, breast, neck and back) and
weighed separately. The respective weights of different
parts of the chicken were recorded and expressed as a
percentage of body live weight.
against New Castle and infections bursa diseases and
coccidiostat was administered between the tenth and
seventeenth day to prevent coccidiosis. Vitamin and
minerals were given occasionally while water and feed
were supplied ad libitum.
Experimental Diets and Treatments: Two diets (1 and 2)
which contained 22% crude protein (CP) and 3,000 Kcal
metabolizable energy (ME) per kg of feed were fed to
Ross breed broiler chicks for the first four months of
age which represents the starter phase. Diet 1 serves as
the control without biomin (natural growth promoters)
supplementation while diet 2 was supplemented with 1g
of biomin -imbo per kg feed. Birds on diet 2 were also
given biomin C - Ex orally at the rate of 20mg prebiotics in
drinking per bird for tree consecutive days. After four
weeks of feeding (i.e. not finisher phase) diet 1 was
changed to diet 3 which contained 17% CP and
3,020 kcal/ME/kg feed and diet 2 was change to diet 4
which was similar to diet 2 except for its 17% CP content.
Diet 4 also contained biomin (1g/kg feed). Birds on diet
4 were also given oral biomin C-Ex (20mg in drinking
water/bird) for three consecutive days. The finisher phase
lasted for another four weeks (i.e. 5 th to 8 th week).
Data Analysis: All data obtained were subjected to
statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the
General Linear Model (GLM) of SAS software [3] and their
respective means were separated by the Duncan option of
the software package.
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World J. Agric. Sci., 4 (4): 467-470, 2008
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 2: Performance Characteristics of Broilers chicken fed diets with or
without biomin (natural growth promoter) at finisher phase
(8th week)
Daily feed intake (g/bird/4wks), daily weight gain
(g/bird/4wks), final body weight (g/bird/4wks), efficiency
of fed utilization (feed/gain) and metabolizable energy
intake (kcal/bird/day) increased from 76.18±0.93,
34.09±0.23, 1440.00±65.32, 0.45±0.83 and 228.54±0.86
respectively in the control diet (diet 3) without biomin
to 95.77±0.68, 44.82±0.87, 1832.00±4.08, 0.47±0.85 and
287.31±0.58 in diet 4 that was supplemented with biomin
as shown in Table 2.
There were no significant (P > 0.05) differences in the
performance characteristics in terms of feed intake, weight
gain, final body weight, efficiency of feed utilization and
ME intake of Ross breed broilers fed diets with or without
biomin (Table 2). Higher numerical mean values for the
monitored performance characteristics were observed
among birds on diet 4 with biomin (except for the FCR),
through these values were not significantly (P>0.05)
different from those on diet 3 (control).
The FCR (2.14) and EFU (0.47) recorded were within
the range of 2.2 and 0.46 respectively, as reported by
Awaad and Zouelfekar [4] when they fed Hubbard breed
broilers with prebiotics orally at the rate of 20mg/bird for
three days and probiotics, 1g/kg of feed ad libitum. The
result of this study is in agreement with the studies of
Watkins and Kratzer [5] and Maiolino et al. [6] which
reported that prebiotics and probiotics had no
significantly (P>0.05) positive effect on broilers. A critical
appraisal of some studies conducted in the 1970’s and
early 1980’s on the effectiveness of probiotics in broilers
and layers by Barrow [7] indicated that there was little
evidence in the studies to support the claims of positive
effects made by probiotics and that the studies may have
suffered from errors in methodology and interpretation.
Otwin Simon of Free university, Berlin also noted that the
efficacy and the mode of action of probiotics has not been
proved, not fully understood and that its effectiveness of
improving performance in piglets are not consistent and
rarely significant [8].
No morality was recorded in birds fed on diets with
growth promoter (biomin) but 6.67% mortality was
recorded in birds on control diets. Post mortem findings
revealed that the birds died of diarrhea, which was an
indication of the presence of many harmful bacteria which
has the potential threat to body immunity or resistance
against diseases. Biomine which contains the bacteria
Enterococcus faecium could have boosted or improved
the immunity or resistance of broilers on diet with
probiotics against pathogens by decreasing the
Parameters
Diet 3 (-biomin)
Diet 4 (+biomin
Initial body weight (g/bird)
485±1.23
577.00±6.46
Feed intake (g/bird 4 weeks)
2133.08±1.49
2681.56±16.57
Mean daily feed intake (g/bird/4wks)
76.18±0.93
95.77±0.68
Mean daily weight gain (g/bird/4wks) 34.09±0.23
44.82±0.87
Final body weight (g/bird/4wks)
1440.00±65.32
1832.00±4.08
Efficiency of feed utilization (EFU)
0.45±0.83
0.47±0.85
Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR)
2.23±0.21
2.14±025
(Kcal/bird/body)
228.541±0.86
287.31±0.58
Mortality (%)
6.67
0.00
Metabolizable energy intake
*NOTE:Values with common superscripts are not significantly (P > 0.05)
different.
Table 3: Heamatological values of broiler chicken fed with or without
Biomin
Parameters
Diet 3 (- Biomin)
Packet cell volume (%)
23.00±0.58
Diet 4 (+ Biomin)
27.00±0.58
Haemoglobin (g/dl)
7.47±0.29
8.70±0.17
Red blood cell (x106/mm3)
3.92±0.05
4.19±0.06
White blood cell (x106/mm3)
9.93±0.03
10.83±0.44
Lymphocyte (%)
33.33±6.01
38.33±4.41
Neutrophyll (%)
66.67±6.01
61.33±4.10
Total protein (g%)
4.97±0.22
6.00±0.06
Albumin (g%)
1.77±0.03
2.43±0.18
Globulin (g%)
3.20±0.21
3.70±0.06
*Mean values with same superscripts along the same row are not
significantly (P>0.05) different
Table 4: Carcass and organ weights of broilers chicken fed with or without
Biomin expressed as percentage live weights
Parameters
Live weight (g)
Diet 3 (- Biomin)
Diet 4 (+ Biomin)
SEM
1570.00
1920.00
0.12
990.00
1210.00
0.12
Carcass (dressing %)
63.06
63.02
0.03
Breast
18.32
18.58
4.06
Back
16.56
16.14
4.87
Wing
8.71
8.33
0.88
Eviscerated carcass (g)
Neck
3.82
4.25
1.09
Thigh
12.10
11.11
1.94
Drumstick
9.34
10.07
1.80
Shank
3.65
4.17
1.20
Head
2.97
2.95
0.75
Gizzard
2.76
2.60
4.71
Liver
3.18
2.78
0.33
Kidney
0.32
0.34
0.84
*Values along the same row with the same superscript are not significantly
(P>0.05) different
population of harmful bacteria and at the same time
encouraging beneficial bacterial to survive and multiply.
The phenomenon is known as competitive exclusion
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World J. Agric. Sci., 4 (4): 467-470, 2008
where microbes compete for host mucosal receptor
sites, secretes antimicrobials, produces fermentation
by products (such as volatile fatty acids), competes
for essential nutrients and stimulates hosts immune
functions [8].
The Haematological Values of Ross Breed Broilers
are shown in Table 3.
The haematological parameters measured increased
among boilers fed diets with biomin (diet 2 and 4) over
those on control diets (without biomin) except for the
neutrophyll which decreased from 66.67±6.01% in the
control to 61.00±0.06% in birds on pre-and probiotic
treatment (Table 3). The haematological parameters were
not significantly (P>0.05) different between treatments
and the values were in harmony with the normal range for
healthy birds stated by Mitruka and Rawnsley [9]. The
higher values of WBC (10.83±0.44 x 106/mm) in birds
whose feeds were supplemented with biomin than in
the control (9.93±0.03 x 106/mm3) implied that birds on
diet 2 and 4 with biomin were better immunized against
infections (pathogens) than those on diet 1 and 3 which
have no growth promoter.
Table 3 also showed the observed increased levels
of total serum protein, albumin, globulin, haemoglobin
and PCV observed in the treated birds compared to the
non-treated birds, which was similar to the findings of
Pollman et al. [10] when he did oral inoculation of germ
free birds with Lactoboccilus acidophilus. It therefore
mean that the use of biomin in broilers feed has no
negative implication on the haemotological and health
status of bird that consume it.
The carcass and organ weight of Ross broiler
chicken expressed as percentage live weights are shown
in Table 4.
Birds on diets (2 and 4) with biomin gave higher
values for live weights (1920g) and eviscerated carcass
(1210g) and Breast (18.58%), neck (4.25%), drumstick
(10.07%), shank (4.17%) and Kidney (0.34%) (Expressed
as percentages of live weight) over these (157g, 990g,
18.32%, 3.82, 3.82%, 9.34%, 3.65% and 0.2% respectively)
of birds fed control diets (1 and 3) without bromine.
Carcass and organ weights were not significantly
(P>0.05) different between treatments.
organ weights. Biomin also suppressed mortality at
chick starter stage and may have boosted the birds’
immunity by selectively decreasing the population of
pathogens and enhancing the growth of beneficial
micro-organisms.
REFERENCES
1.
Plail, R., 2006. The Innovative power of probiotics.
Poultry International, June 2006, pp: 34-36.
2. MAFF 1984. Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries
and Food. Manual of Veterinary Investigation
Techniques. Volume 2. Reference Book 390. Third
Edition. Edited by Davies E.T., Benson, J.A., Bicknel,
S.R., Grey, D.E.; Hewitt, S.G., Lloyd, Morrison, J.R.A.,
Ostler, D.C., Pepin, G.A. and Purvis, C.M.
MAFF/ADASS.
3. SAS1996. SAS user’s Guide: Statistics. SAS Institute
Inc, Cary, N.C.
4. Awaad, A.M.A. and S.S.A. Zouelfeker, 2001. Project
report: effects of Probiotics and Combination of
E. coli Infections in Broiler Chickens. Cairo
University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
Department of Poultry Diseases, Giza, Egypt.
5. Watkins, B.A. and F.H. Kratzer, 1984. Drinking
water treatment with commercial preparation of a
concentrated Lactobacillus culture for broiler
chickens. Poultry Sci., 63: 1671-1673.
6. Maolino, R., A. Fioretti, L.P. Menna and C. Meo,
1992. Research on the efficiency of probiotics in
diet for broiler chickens. Nutrition Abstract and
Reviews Series B. 62: 482.
7. Barrow, P.A., 1992. Probiotics for chickens. In:
Probiotics, the scientific Basis (Ed. fuller, R.),
Chapman and Hill. London, pp: 225-257.
8. Feedmix, 2006. In practice. Volume 14, No. 6 2006
www.AllaboutFeed.net pp: 19-20.
9. Mitruka, B.M. and H.M. Rawnsley, 1977. Clinical
Bichemical and Hematological Reference values in
normal experimental Animals Masson Publishing
USA., Inc.
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Effects of Microbial feed additives on performance
of starter and growing -finishing pigs. J. Animal
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CONCLUSION
Biomin inclusion in broiler’s diet has neither
significant (P>0.05) difference nor adverse effects on their
performances, haematology and carcass quality and
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