PS7-24. Dietary Supplementation of a Synergistic Blend of Phytogenic and Probiotics Improved Feed Conversion Ratio and Lesion of Coccidia Challenged Broiler Chickens.

Abstract The objective of the study was to evaluate dietary supplementation of a synergistic blend of phytogenic and probiotics on performance, lesion score, and fecal oocyst counts in broilers chickens challenged with coccidiosis. A total of 240 two-day-old Ross 708 broiler chickens (54.80 ± 2.22 g body weight (BW)) were group-housed (5 chickens/pen; 12 pens/treatment) in battery brooders and randomly assigned to one of four treatments: negative control (NC), positive control (PC), supplementation of 0.10% or 0.15% of the syngergistic blend. The blend contained approximately 1 × 109 CFU/g Bacillus subtilis and 0.50% of tannin. All birds had ad libitum access to water and experimental diets throughout the experimental period. Following eight-day adaptation period, all chickens except that in NC were orally inoculated inoculated with unattenuated E. acervulina, E. maxima, and E. tenella (ADVENT®, Huvepharma Inc) in the feed. At day 5 and 10 post inoculation (PI), weight gain and feed intake were recorded, and feces were collected for oocyst enumeration. In addition, one chicken per pen on d 5 and 10 PI was sacrificed for lesion score assessment. All data were analyzed by the PROC MIXED of SAS. Orthogonal polynomial contrasts were used to evaluate the linear and quadratic effects of the synergistic blend on the dependent variables. The mortality rates were 4.17% in control groups, and 1.67% and 3.33% in low or high synergistic blend groups throughout the experiment. Compared with NC, birds in the PC had lower (P < 0.01) BW on d 5 and 10 PI, reduced (P < 0.01) average daily gain from d 0 to 5 and d 5 to 10 PI, decreased (P = 0.068) average daily feed intake from d 5 to 10 PI, and increased (P < 0.01) feed efficiency from d 0 to 5 and 5 to 10 PI. Supplementation of the synergistic blend increased (linearly, P < 0.01) feed efficiency during the post inoculation periods. Chickens in coccidiosis challenge had greater fecal oocyst shedding on d 5 PI than d 10 PI. Supplementation of 0.10% of synergistic blend reduced the shedding of Emeria although no statistical differences were observed across challenge groups. Consistently, birds in 0.10% synergistic blend had lower (P < 0.10) lesion scores in the duodenum, jejunum, and cecum during the peak of coccidiosis (on d 5 PI). In conclusion, supplementation with the synergistic blend improved feed conversion ratio and reduced lesion scores and oocyst shedding in birds infected with Eimeria strains, with the 0.10% inclusion rate demonstrating greater efficacy.