Utilization of Probiotic Supplemented Shea Butter Cake Meal Based Diets by Broiler Chickens

A 42-day study was conducted to investigate probiotic supplementation on shea butter cake (SBC)
based diets of broiler chickens on live weight, carcass traits and relative organ weights. A total of 280,
1-day old Arbor acres strain broiler chicks were divided into 7 dietary treatments with 4 replicates of
10 birds each in a completely randomized design. Diet 1 (control diet) has no SBC and probiotic
supplementation while remaining 6 diets contained 5, 10, and 15% levels of SBC each with (+) or
without (-) probiotic supplementation. The results showed that carcass parameters and prime cuts
weights increased (P<0.05) in birds fed probiotic-SBC diets compared to control diets. Abdominal fat
content was lower (P<0.05) in birds fed probiotic-SBC diets than those on control and non-probiotic
SBC diets. Differences in relative organ weights among all treatments were non-significant (P>0.05)
except for liver and bursa weight. In conclusion, supplementation of multi-strain probiotic improved
carcass traits, prime cut-parts and relative organ weights of broiler chickens up to 15% inclusion level.