The Effect of Lactobacillus Reuteri Isolated from Gastrointestinal Tract of Iranian Native Poultry on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Blood Parameters and Immune Response of Broiler Chickens

In the recent years, many countries have banned or restricted the usage of antibiotics as growth-promoting, due to their undesirable effects on human and animal health. Using probiotics as an alternative to growth-promoting antibiotics play an important role in improving performance, health and increasing the quality of poultry products. Lactobacilli are the most popular probiotic bacteria that have beneficial effects on host’s performance and health. In this study, the effect of two native strains of Lactobacillus ruteri isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of native chickens in north-western and south-western of Iran were investigated on performance, carcass characteristics, blood parameters and immune response of broilers.

In this experiment, 300 Arbor-Acres® Plus+ male broiler chickens were divided in to 5 treatments, 4 replications (15 chickens per replication), in a completely randomized design. The experimental treatments include: 1- Basic diet as a control treatment, 2- Basic diet + Avilamycin antibiotic, 3- Basic diet + commercial probiotic (Bio-Poul®), 4- Basic diet + Lactobacillus reuteri isolate MG547731 (Plr2), and 5- Basic diet + Lactobacillus reuteri isolate MG547727 (Plr3).

Under the condition of this experiment, commercial probiotics, antibiotic and either Lactobacillus reuteri (Plr2) isolates, significantly improved daily weight gain in final period (p<0.05). Native isolates probiotics and commercial probiotics significantly (p<0.05) reduced the relative weight of gizzard and proventriculus, though no significant (p<0.05) differences were recorded for other carcass components in broiler chickens. After the first injection of SRBC, treatments include antibiotic and Lactobacillus reuteri (Plr2) isolate caused a significant increase of IgM, and after the second injection, Lactobacillus reuteri (Plr2) and commercial probiotic treatments, showed a significant (p<0.05) increase in immunoglobulin G and Total immunoglobulin. The antibody titer against Newcastle vaccine did not show a significant difference between treatments and the control group. There was no significant difference between serum glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, VLDL and LDL between treatments and the control group. No significant difference was obtained in serum HDL level in probiotic treatments, while antibiotic treatment appeared with a significant decrease in HDL.

Addition of native Lactobacillus reuteri isolates to poultry diets can have beneficial effects similar to commercial probiotics, on performance, immune response and blood parameters of broilers.