Supplemental Effect of Lactobacillus Plantarum on the Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Gas Emission, Excreta Microbiota, and Meat Quality in Broilers

ABSTRACT The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) supplementation on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, gas emission, excreta microbiota, and meat quality in broilers. A total of two hundred eighty-eight, one-day-old Ross-308 chicks (mixed sex) were randomly allocated to one of two treatments with eight replicated cages (18 chicks per cage). For a period of 35 days, control treatment chicks were fed commercial corn-soybean meal-based (CON) mash form diet, whereas, LP (Lactobacillus plantarum) - chicks were fed CON with 0.10% L. plantarum supplement. The dietary inclusion of 0.10% L. Plantarum supplementation has a trend to increase the body weight gain (BWG) of broilers at day 7(p=0.079) and significantly increased at day 21 (p=0.011) and the overall trial period (p=0.037) compared to the CON diet. In addition, 0.10% L. plantarum supplementation to basal diet significantly decreased H2S (p=0.046) concentration. Also, it has significantly increased the excreta Lactobacillus population (p=0.041) and reduced the E. coli count (p=0.054) compared to the CON diet. However, throughout the trial there were no significant differences observed on nutrient digestibility of dry matter, nitrogen, and gross energy, as well as meat quality traits in broilers, fed 0.10% L. plantarum diet. In summary, the inclusion of L. plantarum supplementation has a beneficial effect on growth performance, excreta microbiota, and gas emission. From this, we conclude that 0.10% of L. plantarum could be a potential feed additive to enhance poultry production.