The Effects of a Synbiotic Containing Enterococcus faecium and Inulin on Growth Performance and Resistance to Coccidiosis in Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Coccidiosis is a common infectious disease in poultry, causing major economic losses. The aim of this study was first, to investigate the effects of synbiotic Biomin®IMBO on performance of broilers in normal condition (experiment 1) and secondly, to evaluate the influence of synbiotic on severity of intestinal lesion score and fecal oocyst shedding of the broilers challenged with coccidian (experiment 2).There were four dietary treatments in each experiment; basal diet (control) and basal diet +0.05, 0.1 or 0.15% synbiotic Biomin®IMBO of diet. In experiment 1,400 day-old male broiler chicks were randomly assigned to 16 pens (25 birds/pen) and were fed regular nonmedicated broiler starter (0-10d), grower (11-28d) and finisher (29-42d) diets. The measured traits were: Body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) at the end of each period. In experiment 2, on 10d, four birds from each pen used in experiment 1 (totally 64 birds) were transformed to battery. On 15d, birds were inoculated esophageally with 5000 oocysts of either Eimeria acervulina or Eimeria tenella. On 6 day after postinoculation, intestinal lesion score and number of oocysts excreted for successive five days were determined.The results showed that BWG was increased significantly (P<0.05) in broilers fed diet containing 0.1 and 0.15% synbiotic, when compared to control group, from 1d to 42d. The presence of synbiotic in diet made significant improvement (P<0.05) in FCR of finisher and total experimental periods. All groups fed diets with synbiotic significantly (P<0.05) shed less oocysts than non-supplementation groups. The lowest lesions score of duodenum and cecum were observed in broiler fed diet with 0.15% synbiotic. In conclusion, it can hypothesize that synbiotic Biomin®IMBO can promote growth and have protective properties against coccidiosis in broiler diets.