Effect of Inclusion of Degraded and Non-Degraded Date Pits in Broilers' Diet on their Intestinal Microbiota and Growth Performance.

The current study aims to assess the effect of non-degraded date pits (NDDP) and degraded date pits (DDP) in broilers' diets on gut microbiota and growth performance. The degradation of date pits (DP) occurred via the cellulolytic fungus by a solid-state degradation procedure. One-day-old Brazilian broilers were allocated into six dietary groups: (1) maize-soy diet, (2) maize-soy diet with oxytetracycline (20%, 50 g 100 kg), (3) maize-soy diet with 5% NDDP, (4) maize-soy diet with 10% NDDP, (5) maize-soy diet with 5% DDP, and (6) maize-soy diet with 10% DDP. At the end of the trial, the total count of bacteria was significantly ( < 0.05) less in broilers fed 10% DDP diet (treatment 6) compared with the control group (treatment 1). In addition, DDP and oxytetracycline control diets have a similar diminishing effect on total bacterial counts and the populations of , , spp., and . Over 35 days of trial, weight gains were similar among the six dietary groups. Our results showed that DDP and control diets have a similar effect on growth performance. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) was poorer in broilers fed NDDP diets than other treatments. The European Production Efficiency Index (EPEI) was greater with 5% and 10% DDP than those fed NDDP at the same levels, with no significant variance from the control and antibiotic-supplemented diet (treatment 2). Overall, it can be suggested that maintaining 10% of DDP can partly replace dietary maize while also serves as a gut health enhancer and thus a growth promoter in the diet for broilers.