A new tool to manage poultry production costs

Probiotic Pediococcus acidilactici CNCM I-4622: lowering feed cost while maintaining laying performance and egg quality

A study published in Poultry Science (Mikulski et al., 2020) shows the positive effect of the probiotic strain Pediococcus acidilactici CNCM I-4622 (MA 18/5M)¹ (BACTOCELL) on dietary energy utilization in laying hens. The study indicated that the probiotic was able to compensate for the effect of a 100 kcal ME/kg of feed energy dilution on the laying performance. The authors suggested that the probiotic supplement exerts a positive influence on dietary energy utilization, increasing the feed efficiency in laying hens. Energy being a major driver of feed costs in poultry production, these new findings bring egg producers and nutritionists a new tool to manage gut health and laying performance while limiting the production cost. The publication concluded that Pediococcus acidilactici CNCM I-4622 supplementation on a reduced-energy diet can be a viable strategy for lowering the feed cost while maintaining laying performance and egg quality.

More about this innovative trial

The study was conducted at Olzstyn University, in Poland, in order to determine the effect of the probiotic supplementation of diets with different energy levels on laying hens productive performance. As a model, 100 kcal ME/kg of feed energy density reduction was tested. The experimental diets were formulated to contain respectively 2,550 and 2,650 kcal ME/kg of feed and equal amounts of amino acids and minerals. The trial involved 200, 31-week-old Hy Line Brown hens and lasted for 16 weeks.

Despite a 100 kcal ME/kg of feed difference, both groups displayed a similar laying rate, equivalent feed conversion rate, and exported egg mass.

The concept of bioequivalence has been applied to evaluate the combined effect of the dietary energy dilution and the supplementation of P. acidilactici CNCM I-4622 on hens’ productive performance. Bioequivalence is defined by EFSA (2018) as follows: “if two products are said to be bioequivalent, it means that they would be expected to be, for all relevant effects, the same.” The bioequivalence concept applied to hens’ performance criteria indicates that hens receiving P. acidilactici CNCM I-4622 with a reduced-energy diet show bioequivalent performance to hens from the standard energy diet without probiotic.

In addition, eggs from the probiotic and reduced energy diet group showed similar eggshell thickness than eggs from the control and standard energy diet.

This suggests that the probiotic supplementation is able to somehow compensate for the effect of the energy dilution (-100 kcal ME/kg of feed) on laying hens production performance.

Eventually, when comparing the effect of the probiotic with an equivalent diet (same energy level), it appears that hens fed the probiotic diet repeatedly provide better productive performance than hens without the probiotic (p<0.05).

These corroborate previous findings when the probiotic is supplemented on top of the diet and has shown beneficial and consistent effects on both the laying rate and the feed efficiency.

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