South Korean scientists studied the effects of ß-glucan and Bacillus subtilis on growth performance, blood profiles, relative organ weight and meat quality in broilers fed maize-soybean meal based diets.
South Korean scientists studied the effects of ß-glucan and Bacillus subtilis on growth performance, blood profiles, relative organ weight and meat quality in broilers fed maize-soybean meal based diets. A total of 480 mixed sex broilers were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatments in a 2×2 factorial arrangement with 2 levels of ß-glucan and Bacillus subtilis. There were 6 replicate pens/treatment with 20 chicks/pen for growth performance and 5 chicks/pen for meat quality and blood profiles in this 5-wk study. Broilers fed Bacillus subtilis diets had 5.3 percent and 3.3 percent greater body weight gain (BWG) during d 22-35 and throughout the study, respectively. No effects were observed in blood profiles. Administration of either ß-glucan or Bacillus subtilis increased 3.9 percent or 3.8 percent of the relative weight of spleen, respectively, while the supplementation of ß-glucan decreased the relative weight of abdominal fat by 16.0%. Dietary supplementation with ß-glucan decreased the breast meat b* value 26.2 percent, and a synergistic interactive effect of ß-glucan and Bacillus subtilis was observed in b* value of breast meat. Bacillus subtilis at 108 cfu/kg of diet improved BWG and relative weight of spleen, while 1 g/kg ß-glucan did not improve BWG, but decreased the relative weight of abdominal fat and b* value of breast meat in broilers.