Effect of the use of probiotic Bacillus subtilis (QST 713) as a growth promoter in broilers: an alternative to bacitracin methylene disalicylate

Walter Rivera-Pérez,Elías Barquero-Calvo,Aida J Chaves

doi:10.1016/j.psj.2021.101372

Abstract

The global poultry trend toward the more responsible use of antibiotics is becoming recurrent and has demanded the need to generate new natural alternatives. Probiotics have gained importance as an option to use as growth promoters. This study aimed to evaluate Bacillus subtillis QST713 as a substitute for an antibiotic growth promoter (BMD). A total of 150 male broilers were assigned to three dietary treatments: 1) control diet (CO), 2) control diet + 500 g/t of BMD (AGP), and 3) control diet + 100 g/t of B. subtilis QST713 (PB), respectively. Each treatment was monitored for 5 wk for the productive variables: body weight, accumulated feed consumption, food conversion, and European efficiency factor. At the end of each week, fresh fecal samples were cultured and quantified for E. coli, Enterococcus spp., and Lactobacillus spp. At the end of the trial, blood samples were analyzed for hemogram and intestinal samples (anterior portion) for histomorphometry. The data were statistically analyzed with an analysis of variance and subjected to a least significant difference test (Tukey). The zootechnical yields were similar in the AGP and PB groups (P ˃ 0.05); both superior to the control group. In the hematological profiles, no difference was observed between the experimental groups. E. coli and Enterococcus counts were significantly lower (P ˂ 0.05), and Lactobacillus counts were significantly (P ˂ 0.05) higher in the PB group, relative to CO and AGP groups. No differences (P ˃ 0.05) were found in bacterial counts between the CO and AGP groups. The intestinal mucosa and villi in the PB group were significantly (P ˂ 0.05) longer and with less deeper crypts than CO and AGP groups. We conclude that B. subtillis QST713, used at the suggested commercial dose (100 g/ton), is an effective growth-promoting alternative to BMD that modulates the microbiota and intestinal architecture, thus producing zootechnical yields consistent with BMD.

Highlights

The world's human population continues to grow rapidly, and with it, the demand for animal protein increases, so the livestock industry must improve the productive performance of the animals (Bilal et al, 2021)
Values are expressed as means with pooled SEM values, n = 150. a,bMeans with different superscripts in the same column differ (P 0.05). 1Abbreviations: antibiotic growth promoters (AGP), antibiotic growth promoter; control group (CO), control; PB, probiotic
The current results indicate that B. subtilis QST713 positively affected productive performance, animal health, and intestinal integrity

Summary

Introduction

The world's human population continues to grow rapidly, and with it, the demand for animal protein increases, so the livestock industry must improve the productive performance of the animals (Bilal et al, 2021). New demands emerge from the consumer, for example, partial or total restrictions to the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) (Bai et al, 2017). The current population shows great interest in food safety and security. Many governments create laws and regulations that regulate the use of antibiotics (Zhang et al, 2021), so the poultry.

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