Growth, body characteristics and blood parameters of ostrich chickens receiving commercial probiotics

This study was undertaken to determine the effect of four commercial probiotics on growth, body characteristics and haematological parameters of ostrich chicks. A total of 25 ostrich chicks (937 +/- 68.1 g) were individually allocated and fed the experimental diet for six weeks (n=5 per treatment). Experimental diets consisted of a corn/soybean meal-based diet unsupplemented (T1: Control), and four diets supplemented with probiotics according to the recommendations of the manufacturer (T2: 0.04% Bioplus 2B; T3: 0.09% Primalac; T4: 0.1% Thepax; and T5: 0.03% Protexin). Feed intake (F1), body weight (BW) and seven body characteristics (e.g. height) were measured every week. Blood samples and other body characteristics were also taken in the last week. There was an interaction effect between diet and time on all the growth variables and body characteristics (p<0.05). Both the BW and the BW gain of the ostrich chicks were, in general, higher for those fed the diet T2 than those fed the control diet (0.42, 1.07, 0.99, 1.09, 2.51, and 1.66 kg BW gain vs 0.28, 0.41, 0.83, 0.94, 1.15, and 1,15 kg BW gain at 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42 days respectively), while for those fed the other diets containing probiotics differences were only observed at 42 days (p<0.05). Consuming probiotics over an extended period influenced several of the haematological parameters differently compared to those fed the control diet (p<0.05). 12 and 13 increased the concentration of total cholesterol (157 and 210 mg/dL respectively), when compared to those fed the control diet (119 mg/dL), while total cholesterol was slightly reduced (p>0.05) for those fed the diet containing Thepax (14, 79 mg/dL). In conclusion, the effects of commercial probiotics on growth performance, body characteristics and haematological parameters varied among probiotics.