Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, and Gut Micro Flora of Japanese Quail Fed Diet Supplemented with Bacillus megaterium

Abstract

The study was carried out to explore the effect of Bacillus megaterium (BM) on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, immune status and gut microflora of Japanese quail. A total of 200 one-day-old healthy quail birds with similar average weight (8.00±2g) were randomly allocated in four dietary treatments with five replicates having 10 chicks each. The dietary treatments were followed as control (Ctrl) fed a basal diet with no probiotic addition, while BM-500 (500 mg/100Kg), BM-750 (750 mg/100Kg) and BM, 1000 (1000 mg/100Kg) fed basal diet supplemented with B. megaterium at the dose 500, 750 and 1000 mg/100 kg respectively. The current results demonstrated that birds fed with BM-750 showed an increase in weight gain during starter, finisher, and whole period (P≤0.01). During the starter period no difference was found in feed intake, while in finisher and overall period significant reduced feed intake observed in B. megaterium supplemented treatments. Moreover, feed efficiency significant improved in starter (P≤0.05), finisher (P≤0.01) and overall (P≤0.01) periods in BM treatments than Ctrl. The percentage of DM (P≤0.01), CP (P≤0.01) and EE (P≤0.05) digestibility were improved significantly in BM supplemented groups than Ctrl. The highest serum level of Ig A, IgG and IgM was recorded in BM-750 than control. No effect was observed among treatment groups for immune indicators. Significant ((P≤0.01) reduction in pathogenic bacteria E. coli and Salmonella were observed in BM -750, BM-1000, and BM-500 than Ctrl. However, compared with the Ctrl treatment the Lactobacillus count was increased in BM treatments (P≤0.01). Conclusively, novel B. megaterium probiotics had beneficial effect on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, immunoglobulins and micro biome of J. quail