• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.97-119
• /
• 1991

Effect of Streptococcus faecium(SF) and an antibiotic, Colistin(Col), supplemented to diets singly or in combination, on the performances and changes of intestinal population of microflora of broiler chicks studied. A total of 252, day-old chicks(Arbor Acre) of mixed sex(M：F＝1：1) were alloted into six groups. A diet with no Col and SF was referred as a control diet. The basal diets were added with two levels of SF, 0.04 and 0.08%, singly or in combination with Col 10ppm Another diet was prepared by adding only Col 10 ppm. Numbers of the microorganism in diets added with SF 0.04% and 0.08% were 7$\times$10$^{4}$ and 1.4$\times$10$^{5}$ /g diet respectively The diets consisting of corn and soybean meal as major ingredients were fed for a period of seven weeks . During the feeding trial, fresh excreta were sampled at the end of every week in a sterilized condition to count microbial changes from each dietary group. Microbial changes of large intestine were also measured from nine birds sacrificed at the end of the 4th and 7th weeks each time per dietary group. Excreta from all the groups were also collected quantitatively at the end of 3rd and 6th weeks to measure digestibility of the diets, At the end of 7th week, nine birds from each group were also sacrificed to measure weight changes of gastrointestinal tracts . Average body weight gains of broilers fed the diets added with SF 0.08% (2.37kg) or SF 0. 08%+col 10ppm(2.34kg) were significantly larger than that of the control(2.18kg). The weight gains of the other groups were not statistically different from that of the control Feed/gain ratios of the supplemental groups were better than that of control (P＜0.05) except that of birds fed the diet added only with SF 0.04%. Digestibilities of nutrients such as dry matter, crude protein, crude fat and total carbohydrates were not altered by the consumption of the diets added with SF and/or Col throughout the whole feeding period. As expected, the numbers of Streptococci in the excreta from birds fed diets added with SF increased significantly with a statistical difference between groups with SF 0.04% and SF 0.08% most of the time. However. addition of Colistin to the diets supplemented with SF did not give any effects on the number of the microorganism. Numbers of coliforms in the excreta were apparently reduced by feeding the diets added with SF and/or Col(P＜0.05). There were, however, no additive effects observed between the two feed additives in this regard when supplementing Col to the SF diets. Distributions of intestinal microflora exhibited exactly the same pattern as those of the excreta. Length of small intestine of the birds fed diets added with SF 0.08% with or without Col 10 ppm became significantly longer with a range of about 10% than those of the birds fed diets without SF. However, the empty weight of the small inestine of the former group was lighter than that of control These changes resulted in a significant reduction in weight/unit length of the intestine of the birds fed diets supplemented with Col and SF singly or in combination. In overall conclusion, diet added with SF 0.08% appeared most effective in improving broiler performances. Colistin added at a level of 10ppm was not beneficial at all in itself or in combination with SF in terms of broiler performances or changes of intestinal microflora population. The efficacy of SF and Col could be attributed to the changes of wall thickness of the small intestine.