Controlling of growth performance, lipid deposits and fatty acid composition of chicken meat through a probiotic, Lactobacillus johnsonii during subclinical Clostridium perfringens infection

Table 1 Effect of L. johnsonii on growth performance and carcass traits of CP-induced chickens¹

Item²	Control	CP	L-LJ	H-LJ	Pooled SE	P-value
Initial weight, g	41.5	41.7	42.0	41.9	0.38	0.951
Final weight, g	2512.7^a	2214.1^c	2307.8^bc	2399.8^b	28.81	<0.001
DWG, g.d⁻¹	58.8^a	51.7^c	53.9^bc	56.1^b	0.68	<0.001
FI, g	4410.7	4297.5	4363.2	4382.9	19.58	0.212
FCR	1.78^c	1.97^a	1.93^a	1.86^b	0.02	0.002
Survival rate, %	96.52	94.12	95.20	95.08	0.32	0.053
Abdominal fat, %³	1.21^a	1.12^b	1.18^a	1.17^a	0.01	0.005
Breast, %³	7.45^a	6.72^c	7.01^b	7.07^b	0.05	<0.001
Thigh, %³	9.26^a	8.69^c	8.99^b	9.04^b	0.04	<0.001

^a,b Means in the same row with different superscripts are significantly different. (P < 0.05)
¹control = basal diet + PBS; CP = basal diet + CP administration; L-LJ = basal diet with 1.0 × 10⁵ cfu BS15/g diet + CP administration; H-LJ = basal diet with 1.0 × 10⁶ cfu BS15/g diet + CP administration. Pen (n = 6 per treatment group) was used as the experimental unit for initial weight, final weight, DWG, FI, FCR and survival rate. An individual bird (n = 12 per treatment group) was used as the experimental unit for abdominal fat, breast and thigh percentages
² DWG daily weight gain, FI feed intake, FCR feed conversion ratio (FI/body weight gain)
³% = percentage of 42-day body weight

ISSN: 1476-511X