In ovo delivery of Lactobacillus acidophilus on the growth and immune response of commercial broiler chicken

Abstract

A nutritional trial was conducted to investigate the effect of in ovo injection of Lactobacillus acidophilus to 18 days old broiler chicken embryo on the growth performance and humoral immune response of commercial broilers. In ovo injection was carried out on 18th day of incubation, out of total 720 broiler hatching eggs, 144 eggs served as non injected control (T1), 144 eggs served as sham control and the remaining 432 eggs (144 for each treatment group) were injected with 0.2 ml of 1x106 Lactobacillus acidophilus (T3), 0.2 ml of 1x109 Lactobacillus acidophilus (T4) and 0.2ml of 1x1012 Lactobacillus acidophilus (T5). The positive control group was injected with 0.2 ml of 0.9% normal saline solution. At hatch, 480 chicks were randomly selected (96 birds in each treatment) with six replicates of 16 birds each as per treatment wise. Data on hatchability, sixth week weight gain, cumulative FCR, livability and antibody titres against sheep RBC antigen were recorded and statistically analysed. There was no significant difference in percent hatchability among treatment and control groups. The 6th week body weight and weight gain were significantly (P