Effect of laboratory isolated Lactobacillus plantarum LGFCP4 on growth performance, intestinal histomorphometry and gastrointestinal microflora population in Guinea fowl

Present study was conducted to investigate the effect of feed supplements viz: Lactobacillus plantarum LGFCP4 (lab isolate from gastrointestinal tract of Guinea fowl), Lactobacillus acidophilus (NCDC, Karnal) and in-feed antibiotic bacitracin methylene disalicylate (BMD) on growth performance attributes like feed intake, body weight gain, FCR and mortality rate, intestinal histomorphology and GIT microflora population in Guinea fowl. Adult female pearl variety guinea fowl birds (age of bird) were randomly assigned into four groups (T1-T4) of 30 birds per group in a completely randomized design. During the entire experimental duration of eight weeks, treatment groups were provided with different dietary treatments (Tl-basal diet (Negative control), T2-Antibiotic growth promoter BMD @ 20g/100kg feed (Positive control), T3–1×10⁸cfu of L.acidophilus/gm fermented feed +MOS @1g/kg feed and T4–1×10⁸cfu of lab isolated L.plantarumLGFCP4/gm fermented feed+ MOS @1g/kg feed. No significant effect of dietary treatments was observed on body weight, average body weight gain, FCR and survivability of birds among the four dietary groups during the experiment. Significantly (P<0.05) lower count of E.coli in crop was observed in T2 and T4 suggesting the antagonistic activity of lab isolate comparable to antibiotic BMD. In ileum and caecum, T2 showed lowest count. Salmonella count in crop was significantly lower in T3 and T4 compared to T2 and T1. In ileum lowest count was observed in T4 while in caecum T2 exhibited lowest salmonella count. In terms of histomorphometry, duodenal villous height (VH) crypt depth (CD) and VH:CD ratio were higher for T3 and T4 and lowest values were obtained for T2 group. The results of the study showed that L. plantarum LGFCP4 isolated from GIT of guinea fowl can effectively replace in-feed antibiotic growth promoters by altering intestinal villi morphology and improving the gut health by reducing the pathogenic microbial load.