Abstract
This study aims to investigate the effects of commercial probiotic supplementation in water on the performance parameters, carcass traits, immune function, and antioxidant capacity of broiler chicks. In the experiment, 120 Arbor Acres (AA) broilers (60 male and 60 female) were randomly allocated into four groups (G) - G1: basal diet and G2, G3, and G4: basal diet with 1% Lactobacillus casei, 1% L. acidophilus, and 1% Bifidobacterium in the water, lasting 42 days. The experimental results revealed that probiotic additives produced positive impacts on body weight, average daily feed intake (ADFI), and average daily weight gain for female chicks, whereas these probiotics significantly reduced ADFI and the feed conversion ratio of male chicks (P < 0.05). Probiotics efficiently improved eviscerated yield and breast yield while reducing the abdominal fat (P < 0.05) for the male broiler chicks. A marked increase was observed in the weight of the spleen, bursa of Fabricius, and thymus in the treatment group (P < 0.05). Besides, probiotics produced a significant effect on the concentrations of immune-related proteins (P < 0.05) and markedly increased the concentrations of antioxidase and digestive enzymes when compared with the control (P < 0.05). The addition of probiotics dramatically reduced the total counts of Escherichia coli and Salmonella and increased the quantity of Lactobacilli (P < 0.05). The results of the present study demonstrated an increase in growth performance, carcass traits, immune function, gut microbial population, and antioxidant capacity by supplementing 1% probiotics (L. casei, L. acidophilus, and Bifidobacterium) in the water for broilers.