Studying the Efficiency of Fermented Local Corn on Some Physiological and Immunological Characteristics of Broiler

Abstract

The study was carried out in the poultry farm of the Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kufa to examine the efficiency of fermented local corn on some physiological and immunological characteristics of broiler. 300 of one day old broiler (Ross 308), unsex with initial weight of 39g were used. Chicks were raised for 35 days in closed house divided into pens with 3m2 for each and distributed randomly on 5 treatments with three replicates for each treatment (60 chicks for each treatment and 20 for each replicate). Treatments were prepared as follows: T1 (imported corn), T2 (unfermented local corn), T3 (replacing fermented local corn instead of imported corn in a ratio of 50%), T4 (replacing fermented local corn instead of imported corn in a ratio of 75%) and T5 (replacing fermented local corn instead of imported corn in a ratio of 100%). Results showed that fermenting local corn by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (1g/kg corn for 24h) was improved the nutritional value of corn particularly crude protein and fat as well as decreasing B1 aflatoxin to very low level. There were non significant differences between Haematological blood characteristics (hemoglobin, packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell and white blood cell), biochemical characteristics (total protein, albumin, globulin, cholesterol and glucose) and immunological characteristics (antibody titers against Newcastle disease, antibody titers against avian infectious bronchitis, the relative weight of fabricius gland and the index of fabricius gland) in all Experimental treatments.