Effect of probiotics and rice on ileal microbial count and intestinal morphometry in broiler chicken

An experiment was conducted in the Department of Poultry Science, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy to find out the effect of probiotics and rice on ileal microbial count and intestinal morphometry in broiler chicken for a period of 42 days. A total of 144, day-old Ven Cobb 430 Y broiler chicks were allotted randomly to six dietary treatment groups with three replicates of eight birds each. The treatment groups were T1-standard broiler ration (SBR1), T2- SBR1 with 0.05 per cent probiotic mixture, T3- SBR1 with 0.1 per cent probiotic mixture, T4- 50 per cent of maize from SBR1 replaced by rice (SBR2), T5- SBR2 with 0.05 per cent probiotic mixture and T6- SBR2 with 0.1 per cent probiotic mixture. The dietary inclusion of rice did not affect the E. coli count and ileal pH. However the coliform count was significantly (p<0.01) lower in group fed rice based diet supplemented with 0.1 per cent probiotics and the E. faecalis count was significantly (p<0.01) higher in rice fed group without probiotic supplementation than corn fed group without probiotic supplementation. The probiotic supplementation at 0.1 per cent level significantly (p<0.01) reduced the E. coli and coliform counts in both rice and corn based diets. The E. faecalis count and ileal pH was significantly (p<0.01) reduced by probiotics at 0.05 and 0.1 per cent levels in corn based as well as rice based diets. The dietary inclusion of rice in broiler diet significantly increased (p<0.01) the ileal villi height in the non-supplemented group. The ileal VH:CD ratio was significantly (p<0.01) increased in rice fed groups compared to corn fed groups. The supplementation of probiotics in both rice and corn based diets significantly (p<0.01) increased the villi height of duodenum, jejunum and ileum and VH: CD ratio in jejunum and ileum. It could be concluded that the dietary supplementation of probiotics at 0.1 per cent level was effective in reducing the intestinal E. coli, coliform count, E. faecalis count, ileal pH and improving the intestinal histo-morphometry. Dietary replacement of 50 per cent corn by rice had no significant effect on these parameters.

Keywords: Rice, probiotics, microbial count, morphometry