Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the effect of crude oligosaccharide extract from coconut milk meal (CMM) and spent tea leaves (ST) on the performance and gut development of broiler chickens. METHODS: A total of 240 one-day-old unsexed broiler chicks (ROSS 308) were raised on litter-floored pens and had ad libitum access to water for 42 days. The experiment was conducted on chicks fed with basal diet (CON), commercial mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), crude oligosaccharide extract from CMM, and crude oligosaccharide extract from ST. The experimental diets were supplemented with 2 and 1 g/kg oligosaccharides during the starter and grower periods, respectively. RESULTS: The body weight gain (BWG) of birds in the MOS group was higher than that of birds in the other groups (p<0.05) in the starter period. However, during the grower period, ST significantly improved the BWG compared to the MOS (p<0.05). MOS, CMM, and ST showed no influence on the carcass and visceral organ weight and the weight and length of intestine (p>0.05). The digestibility of gross energy was greater (p<0.05) in the CMM group than in the CON group during the grower period. Morphological changes were absent in the dietary treatments (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: The improvements in the growth performance were partly driven by nutrient digestibility of such oligosaccharides having prebiotic properties. This result can indicate that supplementing broiler diets with crude oligosaccharides from CMM and ST had no negative effect on the growth performance and gut development of broilers.