Effect of dietary supplementation of direct fed microbes on growth and production performance of egg type chicken

Comparative dietary response of the different strains of the direct fed microbials namely Lactobacilli, Lactococci and Yeast isolated from indigenous sources was studied as probiotics in the commercial egg type chicken. Various treatments consisted of T0 (Controlculture medium), T1 (Lactobacillus salivarius- isolated from cauliflower), T2 (Lactococcus faecium- isolated from Banana), T3 (Saccharomyces cerevisiae-isolated from bread khamir), T4 (Lactobacillus bulgaricus -a standard L4), T5 (Lactococcus lactis- a standard S1) and T6 (Saccharomyces cerevisiae- standard Y3). From 1^st week to 33^rd week of age, layer birds were fed starter, grower and layer mash with or without newly isolated and standard direct fed microbial (DFM). At the end of 8^th and 17^th week, birds were weighed to asses growth performance and the egg laying performance were recorded for the next 16 weeks. Growth performance was better in test treatment T1(Lactobacillus salivarius), standard T4(Lactobacillus bulgaricus L4) and T5 (Lactococcus lactis S1) as compared to control T0. Addition of isolated DFM to the layer diet affected apparent nitrogen and calcium retention and ether extract digestibility during lying phase but had no effect on physical and chemical egg quality parameters. Lactobacillus salivarius isolated from cauliflower thus seemed to be a new promising probiotic for the commercial chick production.