Performances, carcass percentage and abdominal fat of broilers fed ration containedprebiotics from corncobs and challanged with E. Coli

Abstract

Prebiotics are nutrients, which are not digested, and selectively improve growth and activity of beneficial microbes in the intestine. Corncobs contain hemicelluloses which are potential as prebiotic sources. The objectives of this research were to study the performance, the percentage of carcass, and abdominal fat of broilers fed a ration contained prebiotic from hydrolyzed corncobs. This research used factorial completely randomized design which consisted of two factors. The first factor consisted of three treatments: basal ration, basal ration +2.5% prebiotics, and basal ration +0.01% bambermycin, meanwhile the second factor consisted of two treatments: without E. coli infection and with E. coli infection, with five replications (10 birds/replicate). The variables observed were performances (consumption, body weight, feed conversion ratio, mortality), the percentage of carcass, and abdominal fat. The results show that the performances, the percentage of carcass, and abdominal fat of broiler fed a ration contained 2.5% prebiotics were not significantly different to that of control and antibiotic treated broilers, although broilers offered prebiotic tended to have lower values of all parameters measured except for abdominal fat and mortality. It is concluded that supplementation of prebiotics from hydrolyzed corncobs may be used in broiler diet at the level 2.5% of ration dry matter.