Research On Animal Production

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of physical form of feed, probiotic and prebiotic feed supplementation on performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chicks. Two handred sixty four Cobb 500 strain chicks were used at a 2×2×2 factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design, with 24 experimental units (8 treatments with 3 replicates of 11 chickenss per replicate). Treatments were included two feed forms (pellet vs. mash), two levels of probiotics Primalac^® (zero and 900 g/ton) and two levels of prebiotic Fermacto^® (zero and 2 kg/ton), respectively. The pellet form of diet causes of higher intake, body weight gain and better FCR (P<0.05). Interactions between physical form and probiotic supplementation on 4^th and 5^th weeks was significant on weight gain (P<0.05). Also, level of probiotic and prebiotic had a significant effect on FCR at 4^th and 5^th weeks (P<0.05). The gizzard pereceantage was significantly affected by physical form of diet (P<0.05) and supplementation of probiotic and prebiotic had not effect on carcass traits. Results of this study showed that by physical form of diet resulted in a significant improvement in broiler performance and the effects of probiotic and prebiotic on broiler performance was only significant at earlier ages of broiler chickenes.