Impact of Dietary Supplementation of Probiotics on Cecal Microbial Ecology, Immune Response, and Meat Quality of Muscovy Ducks

Probiotics represent a beneficial approach to boost the welfare, health, and meat quality of poultry. One hundred and twenty one-day-old male Muscovy ducklings were divided among 24 floor pens (five ducklings per pen). The pens were randomly distributed among one of four dietary treatments with six replicates (G-C) without any supplementation of probiotics; (G-A) was supplemented with 0.4 g/kg of Amnil^®; (G-M) was supplemented with 0.5 g/kg of M-Mobilize^®; and (G-A-M) was supplemented with 0.4 g/kg of Amnil^® (1-30 day) and 0.5 g/kg of M-Mobilize^® (31-60 day), respectively. The results indicated that BW at day 60 was improved in (G-A) birds compared with (G-C) ones, IL-6 was decreased in (G-A) and (G-A-M) in liver and spleen in comparison with (G-C) (<i>p</i> < 0.05), but no differences were observed between (G-C) and (G-M) (<i>p</i> > 0.05); IL-10 was decreased in all the probiotic-fed ducklings compared with (G-C) birds in the spleen (<i>p</i> < 0.05), and IL-10 was decreased in the (G-A) birds compared with the other treatments in the liver (<i>p</i> < 0.05). Probiotic-fed birds showed a higher enumeration of <i>Lactobacillus</i> spp. compared to (G-C) group (<i>p</i> < 0.05). In addition, the (G-M) group showed improved breast meat flavor, general acceptability, and water-holding capacity (WHC%) compared to (G-C) group (<i>p</i> < 0.05). These results suggest that the probiotic supplement (G-A), could be a good management tool for improving Muscovy ducks' health and production and further research is needed to improve meat quality traits.