Erfani Majd, N.; Mayahi, M. and Sadeghi Moghadam, A.

This study was conducted because of influence of prebiotics (alphamune) and symbiotic (biomin) on histometrical development of small intestine and lymphatic tissue of caecal tonsil have been not reported on broiler chicken. In this study, different parts of small intestine and caecal tonsil, which is a major area of gut associated lymphatic tissue (GALT) in chicken were selected. One hundred and twenty-five 1-day-old broiler chicks were divided into 3 groups: 1) Control group which were fed only by basal diet, 2) Alphamune group which were fed basal diet supplemented with prebiotic (0.5 kg/ton alphamune), and 3) Biomin group, fed basal diet supplemented with symbiotic (1 kg/ton biomin). At the end of 42 days, 15 chicks (5 chicks from each group) were selected for histomorphometrical study. The samples were taken from different parts of small intestine (duodenum, jejunum and ileum) and caecal tonsils and fixed in 10% formalin. The 5-6 μ sections were made by paraffin embedding method and stained by H&E. The results showed that although alphamune and biomin have a significant improvement on histomorphological structure of small intestine (more significant changes were seen in duodenum) and lymphatic tissue of caecal tonsil, the biomin has a more significant improvement. Villous height and thickness, the number of goblet cells, number and depth of intestinal crypt, density and area of aggregated lymphatic tissue were increased more significantly in biomin group (P<0.05). The knowledge obtained from this study showed that alphamune and biomin are considerable feed additives instead of antibiotic for improvement of histomorphological structure of small intestine and its associate lymphatic tissue.

H. A. Ghasemi, M. Shivazad, S. S. Mirzapour Rezaei, and M. A. Karimi Torshizi

A 42-d trial was conducted to investigate the effect of adding a synbiotic supplement to diets containing two different types of fat on performance, blood lipids and fatty acid (FA) composition and oxidative stability of breast and thigh meat in broilers. A total of 800 one-d-old male broiler chickens were randomly assigned into 1 of 8 treatments with 4 replicates of 25 birds per treatment. The experiment consisted of a 4 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments including 4 concentrations of synbiotic (0, 0.5, 1 or 1.5 g/kg diet) and 2 types of fat [sunflower oil (SO) or canola oil (CO)] at an inclusion rate of 50 g/kg diet.
Dietary fat type did not affect body weight gain (BWG) or feed conversion ratio (FCR) during the overall experimental period (0–42 d). However, fat type modified serum lipid profile and FA composition and 2-thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) content in breast and thigh meat.
The addition of synbiotic to the diet linearly improved overall BWG and FCR and also decreased serum cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations. The TBARS value in thigh meat after 30 d of storage at 4°C was linearly decreased as the synbiotic inclusion concentrations in the diets increased. Dietary synbiotic also decreased the proportion of monounsaturated fatty acids and increased n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) concentration in thigh meat, whereas the FA profile of breast meat was not affected by synbiotic supplementation. Moreover, the PUFA/SFA ratio in the breast meat was linearly increased when synbiotic was included in the CO-containing diets.
In conclusion, the addition of synbiotic to broiler diets had a positive effect on growth performance, blood lipid profile and meat quality. The results also support the use of synbiotic to increase the capacity of canola oil for enhancing PUFA/SFA ratio of breast meat in broilers.

Asghar Mohammadian, Seyed Mozafar Mehdizadeh, Hooshang Lotfollahian, Farhad Mirzaei, Hosein Noroozian

240 laying birds were procured and distributed randomly into four treatments and four replicate (15 birds each) which was fed one of the fol- lowing experimental diets containing different levels of probiotics (Biomin IMBO) for seven weeks. 1-Basel diet (control groups), 2-Basel diet + 250 g/t, 3-Basel diet + 500 g/t, 4-Basel diet + 750 g/t feed respectively. As results was re- vealed, feed efficiency were improved signifi- cantly throughout the production periods (p < 0.01). Supplementations of diet with probiotics at 750 g/t feed improved feed efficiency during experimental periods significantly as compared to control groups (p < 0.01). Feed intake was kept constant at the levels of 110g/day/hen throughout the experimental period. Egg pro- duction and Egg mass weight (g/hen/day) was shown an increasing trend during 2nd phase production by increasing the dietary levels of probiotics (p < 0.01). Nevertheless, egg produc- tion at 10th week remained non significant. Egg quality and quantity as well as blood cholesterol were not influenced by dietary supplementations of probiotics.