Comparative effects of dietary Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans and Flavophospholipol supplements on growth performance, intestinal microflora and jejunal morphology of Japanese quail

Abstract

The current experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different types of probiotics on growth performance, carcass traits, intestinal microflora, and jejunal morphology of Japanese quail in comparison with Flavophospholipol antibiotic supplement. A total of 540 one-day old quail chicks were randomly divided into five groups with six replicates (18 birds per pen). The experimental groups included: a basal-diet as control, or the basal diet supplemented with 650 mg/kg Flavophospholipol antibiotic, 200 mg/kg Bacillus subtilis (4×109 CFU/g), 200 mg/kg Bacillus coagulans (2×1011 CFU/g), and 200 mg/kg Bacillus subtilis (4×109 CFU/g)plus Bacillus coagulans (2×1011 CFU/g). Inclusion of B. subtilis probiotic in the diet increased body weight gain (BWG) significantly from 22 to 35 d and from 1 to 35 d compared with control and antibiotic groups (P< 0.05). Also, the using of B. subtilis alone and B. subtilis plus B. coagulans in the diet significantly improved BWG and feed conversion ratio in the whole of study (1-35 d) compared to control group, whereas the use of antibiotics had no significant effect on these parameters compared with control group. The use of all additives resulted in increasing the relative weights of carcass and breast compared to the control group and the highest carcass weight was related to quails fed B. subtilis (P< 0.05). In comparison to the antibiotic group, the use of treatments containing probiotics increased lactic acid bacteria (P< 0.05). Probiotics especially B. subtilis significantly increased villus height of jejunum. However, birds receiving B. subtilis treatments had the highest ratio of villus height to crypt depth compared with antibiotic treatment. It could be concluded that probiotic strains, particularly B. subtilis, may improve growth performance, carcass traits, intestinal microflora, and jejunal morphology of Japanese quail and maybe a good alternative to antibiotics in the diet of quail.