The Probiotic Reduces Feed Conversion and Protects from Potentially Harmful Intestinal Microorganisms and Necrotic Enteritis in Broilers.

Probiotics which do not result in the development and spread of microbial resistance are among the candidate replacements for antibiotics previously used as growth promotors. In this study the effect of in-feed supplementation of the butyrate producing strain 25-3 on performance, intestinal microbiota and prevention of necrotic enteritis (NE), a disease caused by was evaluated in broilers. For the performance study, day old Ross 308 chicks were randomly allocated into two treatment groups and fed either a non-supplemented diet or a diet supplemented with 10 cfu lyophilized per kg feed for 40 days. On day 40 broilers administered had a significant lower bodyweight (2675 g vs. 2762 g; = 0.0025) but supplementation of decreased the feed conversion ratio significantly (1.518 vs. 1.632; < 0.0001). Additionally, ingestion of the strain significantly lowered the abundance of spp. in the caecum and and / spp. in the ileum at day 40. In feed supplementation of in the NE trials resulted in a significant decrease in the number of birds with necrotic lesions compared with the untreated control group. These studies show that supplementation of is able to improve feed conversion, to reduce the abundance of some potentially important pathogens in the caeca and ileum and to contribute to the prevention of NE in broilers, making the strain a potential valuable probiotic.