Effect of a synbiotic Biomin IMBO on performance, serum lipid and humoral immune response in broiler chicks

Eexperiment was conducted to investigate the effects of a synbiotic containing Enterococcus faecium and inulin on performance, serum lipid and humoral immune response against sheep red blood cell (SRBC) with using 400 one-day-old male broiler chicks. Broiler chicks were randomly divided into 16 experimental units (25 birds per unit) and fed corn-soybean meal-based diets. Four units were considered for each treatment and 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 g/kg synbiotic supplement were added to diet for each treatment. The results showed that body weight gain and feed conversion ratio during the whole experimental period were higher in treatments 1 (2662g and 1.72, respectively) and 1.5 (2596 g and 1.74, respectively) g/kg synbiotic compared to control (P<0.05). Also, on 28 and 42 d, serum cholesterol levels were lower in treatments 1 (156.8 and 107.6 mg/dL, respectively) and 1.5 (146.3 and 106.5 mg/dL, respectively) g/kg synbiotic compared to control (P<0.05). On 41 d, the antibody titer against SRBC was higher in treatments 2 (8.09) and 1.5 (8.69) g/kg synbiotic in comparison with control (P<0.05). In general, the results of this experiment showed that using of 1 and 1.5 g/kg synbiotic in broiler diets could improve growth performance, immune responses and reduce serum of blood cholestrol.