Effect of a dried Bacillus subtilis culture on gosling growth performance

Abstract

1. The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of a dried Bacillus subtilis culture (DBSC) on growth performance and nutrient retention of goslings.

2. A total of 240 goslings were randomly divided into 4 dietary treatments with 6 replicates of 10 goslings per pen from 0 to 4 weeks of age. The 4 treatments consisted of a basal diet containing neither antibiotics nor DBSC (control), basal diet supplemented 5 mg Flavomycin/kg, and basal diet supplemented with 250 or 500 mg DBSC/kg.

3. Body weight and feed consumption were measured with pen as the experimental unit at 14 and 28 d of age, and excreta collections from each pen were carried out to determine nutrient retention ratio during the 4th week.

4. The results showed that the diet supplemented with 250 mg DBSC/kg increased average daily gain (ADG) by 6·9%, reduced average daily feed intake (ADFI) by 3·9%, and improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) by 10·3% in a 0–28 d feeding period, compared with the control diet. However, the diet containing 500 mg DBSC/kg did not effect these performance of goslings.

5. The goslings given the diet with 250 mg DBSC/kg had similar ADG, lower ADFI and significantly lower FCR to or than the goslings fed on the Flavomycin diet.

6. The results also showed that dietary DBSC supplementation improved dry matter and energy retention of goslings.

7. This study indicated that the diet containing a dried B. subtilis culture at 250 mg/kg offered large benefits to the growth performance of goslings, and these benefits could equal or exceed those from Flavomycin. It is suggested that the growth promoting effect of DBSC may be attributed to the improvement in the availability of dietary nutrients.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Foundation of Hubei Province, China (Project No. 2006AA201B03). The authors would like to thank Yongjun Fang for assistance with nutrition assays.