Indian Journal of Poultry Science

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of probiotic, prebiotic and acidifier either individually or in combination for comparing the performance and carcass traits of broiler chickens with antibiotic and control. For this, 270 day-old commercial male broiler chicks were randomly divided into nine treatment groups with six replicates of five birds each. The experimental design consisted of; a control diet (maize-soya based), Antibiotic (Virginiamycin @ 500 g/ton), Probiotic (Protexin @ 500 g/ton), Acidifier (Biotronic SE @ 3 kg/ton), Prebiotic [Mannanoligosaccharide (MOS) 500 g/ton], and combinations of Probiotic + Acidifier, Probiotic + MOS, Acidifier + MOS, Probiotic + Acidifier + MOS at their respective inclusion rates. The results indicated that Acidifier alone had significantly (P<0.05) higher body weight (2059 g) gain followed by probiotic + Mos combination (2039 g) during the overall experimental period (0–42 d) compared to control and antibiotic. No significant (P>0.05) difference was recorded among other groups at 42 d of age except probiotic + acidifier group which recorded the lowest body weight gain (1939 g). No significant (P>0.05) difference was observed on feed intake with all treatment groups. But, feed efficiency was significantly (P<0.05) improved in all test groups during the overall experimental period which ranged from 1.62 to 1.67 compared to control diet (1.71). All dietary supplements did not have significant (P>0.05) effect on various carcass parameters studied, except for abdominal fat percentage, which was significantly (P<0.05) lower in probiotic alone and acidifier + MOS groups, while the rest of the treatment groups did not differ from control. It can be concluded that acidifier alone and probiotic + MOS combination can be used as alternates to antibiotic for improving performance of broiler chicken.