Evaluation of performance, biochemical parameters of blood, immune response and jejunal morphology of broiler chickens fed with whey and probiotic

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of whey on the performance, biochemical parameters of blood and immune response in broilers. A total 250 day-old Ross 308 male broiler were randomly distributed in 25 experimental units including 5 treatments with 5 replicates. The experimental diets included control, whey (at 4, 8 and 10% levels) and 0.1% of commercial probiotic (multifactorial 100). The analysis of data showed that the addition of probiotic and whey at 4% to broiler diets decreased the feed conversion ratio during the starter and finisher period (P<0.05). In the grower period, adding 4 and 8% whey resulted in an increase in body weight compared to diets contained 10% whey (P<0.05). The antibody titer against SRBC were higher at adding 4 whey in 35 days and were higher at 4 and 8% whey at 42 days (P <0.05). The Immunoglobulin M and G titer were not affected by experimental treatments at 35 and 42 days of age. The probiotic and whey at the level of 8% decreased serum cholesterol and also probiotic and whey at the levels of 4 and 8 levels decreased the concentration of LDL as compared to control (P≤0.05). The level of 8% whey increased the depth of the crypt and the height of villi to the crypt depth ratio compared to the control (P<0.05). Whey and probiotics increased the relative weight of bursa of fabricus and decreased abdominal fat percentage compared to the control group (P <0.05). Therefore, the findings showed that supplementation of whey up to 10% does not have undesirable effects on performance, it suggested that addition of whey up to 4% to broiler diets may reduced cholesterol, and FCR and improve the immune response of broiler chickens.