Drinking water treatment with a commercial preparation of a concentrated Lactobacillus culture for broiler chickens.

Three hundred male broiler chicks were used to determine the effects of supplying Lactobacillus in the drinking water. The product used, Biomax 40TM, was a fresh-frozen, pure culture of Lactobacillus containing 40 X 10(9) cfu/ml. Water treatments consisted of continuous lactobacilli dosing (CD) and skip-a-day lactobacilli dosing (SAD). A control group (C) received no lactobacilli. Each treatment and control contained two pens of 50 chicks each and were fed for a duration of 7 weeks. At the termination of the experiment, weights of the wet viscera, and wet and dry small intestines of the broilers revealed no significant differences between treatments and control. Surface pH readings taken from crop and duodenum showed that there was no significant difference (P greater than .05). Microbiology performed on duodenal contents revealed higher numbers of lactobacilli for CD and SAD broilers than for C broilers. The liver biotin contents of the lactobacilli-treated broilers were not significantly different from those of the controls. Body weights were not changed by either treatment, although they were greater for the CD broilers than for the SAD broilers. No difference was observed in feed conversion (feed/gain).