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. 2019 Dec 31;99(2):725–733. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2019.12.002

Table 2.

Growth performance of chickens fed diet supplemented with antibiotics or probiotics.

Treatments CON NC AB1 AB2 PB1 PB2 PB3 SEM P
BW, g
 Initial 488 493 471 492 513 496 492 10.0 0.247
 Day 21 827 845 875 888 842 873 885 14.2 0.063
 Day 28 1,175 1,008 1,047 1,079 1,059 1,058 1,053 28.5 0.038
BWG, g
 Day 15 to 21 345c 356b,c 402a 395a 366a,b 391a 384a,b 11.6 0.032
 Day 22 to 28 346a 169c 177b,c 188b,c 202b,c 205b 182b,c 11.6 0.001
 Overall 692a 493c 539b,c 587b 534b,c 580b 545b,c 21.9 0.001
FI, g
 Day 15 to 21 606 673 596 568 607 584 667 46.8 0.628
 Day 22 to 28 702 634 574 611 637 630 608 27.3 0.138
 Overall 1,307 1,306 1,170 1,180 1,244 1,214 1,275 68.1 0.659
FE
 Day 15 to 21 0.569 0.546 0.690 0.696 0.604 0.673 0.583 0.05 0.244
 Day 22 to 28 0.494a 0.267c 0.309b,c 0.311b,c 0.318b 0.325b,c 0.300b,c 0.02 0.001
 Overall 0.529 0.387 0.468 0.500 0.430 0.479 0.429 0.03 0.140

a–cMeans in the same row with different superscripts differ (P < 0.05).

The dose of B. subtilis strain in treatment was a total of at 1.5 × 105 CFU/g feed. For PB3 (2-strain combination), each strain composed 50% of the total CFU count (each strain represents 7.5 × 104 CFU/g feed). All chickens except those fed CON were infected by oral gavage at day 21 with 1.0 × 104 oocysts/bird of E. maxima.

Abberviations: AB1, diet supplemented with virginiamycin at 20 g/ton (22 ppm); AB2, diet supplemented with BMD at 50 g/ton (55 ppm); BW, body weight; BWG, body weight gain; CON, basal diet; FE, feed efficiency; FI, feed intake; NC, basal diet; PB1, diet supplemented with B. subtilis 1781; PB2, diet supplemented with B. subtilis 747; PB3: diet supplemented with B. subtilis 1781 + 747; P: P value; SEM: standard error of the mean.