Effects of dietary supplementation of endo-1, 4-β-D-glucanase producing Bacillus subtilis sp.-fermented products on growth performance in broilers

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of Endoglucanase producing Bacillus subtilis sp. fermented product (EBFP) on growth performance and meat characteristics in broilers. A total of 480, 1 day old ROSS male broiler chicks were obtained from a local hatchery and randomly allotted to 1 of 4 dietary treatments with 6 replicate pens consisting of 20 chicks. Three additional diets were prepared by mixing 0.1% of commercial cellulase, 0.1%, and 0.2% of EBFP with the control diet and all chicks were fed experimental diets and water ad libitum. Feed intake and body weight (BW) were recorded at 0, 3, and 5 week of the experiment. At the end of the experiment, birds fed a diet containing 0.1% of EBFP had the highest BW compared to birds in other groups (P < 0.01). During 0 to 5 week the experimental period, the dietary addition of 0.1% EBFP significantly increased (P < 0.01) BW gain that was higher than that of birds fed the diet in which only a commercial cellulase was added. No significant difference among treatments was observed in carcass weight, carcass yield, left breast, and thigh meat. These results suggest that dietary addition of cellulolytic probiotics may enhance growth performance compared with the single use of probiotics or enzymes.