Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the comparative efficacy of two probiotics (live organisms) of different origins (fermented maize extract and fermented locust bean extract) on the growth performance of broiler chickens. One hundred and twenty day old chicks were purchased and were randomly alloted to 4 dietary treatments and each dietary treatments had 3 replicates of 10 chicks each. The four dietary treatments were designated as D1, D2, D3 and D4 respectively with iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous (ME 3003.45 kcal/ kg and CP 24.02%) broiler starter and finisher (ME 2908.55 kcal/ kg and CP 21.02%) diets were formulated containing fermented maize extract, fermented locust bean extract and mixture (50:50) of both except dietary treatment one (D1) which was control. Birds were raised for first week on diet containing none of the test ingredients (probiotics). Data were generated and calculated on growth performance. Non significant (P>0.05) effects were observed on overall performance parameters of the birds fed diet containing probiotics (fermented maize extract and fermented locust bean extract). However, birds fed with combination of fermented locust beans extract and fermented maize extract (D4) recorded the highest final weight gain of birds (363.89g), followed by the control (D1) having a final weight gain of (309.26g), then fermented locust beans extract (D3) having a final weight gain of (296.48g) and fermented maize extract (D2) having the least final weight gain of the birds (286.90g). However, there were no significant differences (P>0.0.5) between the four dietary treatments. Dietary treatment four (the combination of fermented locust beans extract and fermented maize extract) performed better than the control and other dietary treatments. It is therefore recommended, that dietary treatment four (combination of fermented locust bean extract and fermented maize extract) can be used as probiotics because birds fed this diet performed better in terms growth and performance of broiler chickens than other treatment groups.

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