Combination of a <i>Lactobacillus</i>-Based Probiotic and Organic Acids Decrease Egg to Chick Weight Loss and Reduce <i>Salmonella</i> spp. Counts in the Litter of Commercial Broiler Breeders

Abstract

The effects of supplementing a blend of organic acids (OA) and a lactic acid bacteria (LAB) based-probiotic on egg to chick weight loss (%) and Salmonella spp. recovery counts in the litter of commercial broiler breeders were examined in three independent trials during the years 2013, 2014 and 2015. In each trial, ten thousand birds were divided into two groups of 5000 birds (4500 females and 500 males in each group): Control non-treated group, receiving regular water or treated group, receiving OA and probiotic in the drinking water from 25 to 35 weeks of age. During the ten weeks of evaluation, one thousand fertile eggs or hatched chickens in each trial respectively, were evaluated to obtained, hatching set weight, transferred egg weight, and hatching chick weight, to estimate the difference between egg to chick weight loss (%). Besides, in trial 2 (2014) and trial 3 (2015), litter samples were collected to evaluate Salmonella spp. counts. The supplementation of OA and probiotic during ten consecutive weeks significantly decreased the egg to chick weight loss (%) when compared with the control non-treated groups in all three trials evaluated. Interestingly, at the end of the trials 2 and 3, no counts of Salmonella spp. in the litter were detected. In contrast, control-non treated groups resulted in 4.30 and 4.24 Log10 of Salmonella spp. in trials two and three respectively. The results of the present study suggest that supplementation of OA and a LAB-probiotic for ten consecutive weeks decrease the egg to chick weight loss (%) and reduce Salmonella spp. counts in the litter of commercial broiler breeders. Higher initial body weight in broiler chickens and reduction of Salmonella spp., clearly justify the use of the combination of these products, as alternatives to antibiotics.