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

Table 4

Effect of dietary probiotic preparations (CECT 4043, CECT 539) or antibiotic (avilamycin) on growth performance parameters of Ross 308 broiler chickens subjected to nutritional stress (experiment  2).

Treatment^1	BWG (g per chicken)	FI (g per chicken)	FCE (g of FI/g of BWG)	Relative caeca weight (g of organ/g of BW)
Chicken performance (days 1–16)
Control	397±34	805±42^a	2.04±0.20^ba	0.012±0.003
CECT 4043	387±13	721±9^b	1.86±0.08^cb	0.011±0.003
CECT 539	388±15	706±18^b	1.82±0.08^c	0.011±0.002
Avilamycin	369±39	789±47^a	2.15±0.18^a	0.012±0.003
F	1.025	13.042	6.810	1.669
d.f (N)^2	3 (24)	3 (24)	3 (24)	3 (48)
Chicken performance (days 1–31)
Control	1377±82	2909±154	2.11±0.10^ab	0.009±0.003
CECT 4043	1388±42	2802±34	2.02±0.05^b	0.009±0.003
CECT 539	1364±46	2812±56	2.06±0.07^ab	0.008±0.003
Avilamycin	1319±87	2872±33	2.18±0.12^a	0.007±0.003
F	1.221	2.135	3.689	3.446
d.f (N)	3 (24)	3 (24)	3 (24)	3 (44)

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.