Effects of Feeding of Two Potentially Probiotic Preparations from Lactic Acid Bacteria on the Performance and Faecal Microflora of Broiler Chickens

Table 3

Effect of dietary probiotic preparations (CECT 4043, CECT 539) or antibiotic (avilamycin) on growth performance parameters of medium-growth Sasso X44 chickens during 42 days (experiment  1).

Treatment^1	BWG (g per chicken)	FI (g per chicken)	FCE (g of FI/g of BWG)	Relative intestine weight (g of organ/g of BW)
Chicken performance (days 1–21)
Control	436±21^a	749±16^a	1.72±0.05	0.066±0.006
CECT 4043	425±5^ab	754±9^a	1.78±0.01	0.064±0.003
CECT 539	395±13^b	654±80^b	1.65±0.15	0.067±0.007
Avilamycin	440±17^a	766±15^a	1.74±0.05	0.060±0.009
F	5.477	4.630	1.179	0.965
d.f. (N)^2	3(12)	3(12)	3 (12)	3 (24)
Chicken performance (days 1–42)
Control	1336±33	2864±140	2.14±0.07	0.046±0.004^a
CECT 4043	1348±33	2858±97	2.12±0.05	0.045±0.002^a
CECT 539	1314±16	2800±120	2.13±0.07	0.048±0.006^a
Avilamycin	1503±16	3084±84	2.06±0.14	0.040±0.004^b
F	3.935	3.741	0.584	4.242
d.f. (N)	3 (12)	3 (12)	3 (12)	3 (24)

a−cMeans within columns followed by different letters are significantly different (𝑃<0.05).
¹The chickens from the control group were not given probiotic preparations or antibiotic. The chickens in the CECT 4043, CECT 539, and avilamycin groups were fed with Lactobacillus casei CECT 4043 (7.38 × 10¹⁰ CFU/Kg diet), Lactococcus lactis CECT 539 (6.68 × 10¹⁰CFU/Kg diet) preparations, and avilamycin (10 mg/Kg diet), respectively. BWG: body weight gain, FI: feed intake, FCE: feed conversion efficiency.
²d.f.: degree of freedom. 𝑁: number of samples.