Effect of Different Levels of Soybean Meal Peptides on Performance, Intestinal Morphology and Intestinal Bacterial Population in Broiler Chicks

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different levels of soybean meal peptides on body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, feed intake intestinal morphology and microbial population in broiler chicks. In a completely randomized design 280 one-day-old Ross 308 male broiler chicks were allocated to 7 treatments with 4 replicates and 10 chicks per replicate. Broiler chicks were fed with 100 mg antibiotic, 0 (control), 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 mg soybean meal peptides /kg of diet to 42d. The results showed that in treatment received 350 mg peptide to the diet had significantly higher body weight gain and better feed conversion ratio than the other groups (P<0.05). The villus height, crypt depth and villus height to crypt depth ratio in duodenum and, jejunum and ileum in chicks fed with 350 mg soybean meal peptides/kg to diet significantly increased (P<0.05). Also, supplementation 350 mg soybean meal peptides to diet decreased coliform and Escherichia coli counts and increased lactobacillus counts in ileum compared to the control treatment. It is concluded that adding 350 mg soybean meal peptides to broiler diet increased body weight gain, decreased feed conversion ratio, increased villus height, crypt depth and villus height to crypt depth ratio in duodenum, jejunum and ileum and increased lactobacillus count in ileum compared to the control treatment.