ISSUE FOCUS 50 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE November 2022 APPLYING A SEAWEED BLEND POSITIVELY IMPACTS POULTRY GI MICROBIOTA In a 42-day study, OceanFeedTM Poultry, a proprietary blend of brown, green and red seaweeds, included in broiler diets moved the relative abundance profile of bacterial families in the caeca towards Firmicutes, with a decrease in Actinobacteria (Figure 1). This shift led to a change in Firmicutes: Bacteroidetes ratio from 17.7 to 22.6 (Mohammadigheisar et al, 2020), indicating the presence of more of the important fibre-degrading, butyrate producers such as the Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae (Vital et al, 2017). Similar changes have also been observed in the faecal microbiome of pigs and horses when fed suitable seaweed blends (Sands et al, 2022). In this trial, the broiler chickens consuming the seaweed-containing diet tended (P≤0.09) to have improved body weight gain and feed conversion ratio. In a follow-up trial, broilers were again fed from 1-42 days of age with diets without (control) or supplemented with OceanFeedTM Poultry seaweed blend. Liveweight at 42 days increased by 50 grams while Feed Conversion Ratio improved (P<0.01) by 4-points Figure 2. Final liveweight (kg), feed conversion ratio (FCR, feed: gain), liveability (%) and European productivity index (EPI) of broiler chickens fed a control diet or the control diet supplemented with OceanFeedTM Poultry seaweed blend from 1-42 days of age. Figure 3: Egg production (Hen Day Production, %), feed conversion ratio (FCR, Feed/Egg), shell breaking strength (kg. F) and Haugh Units from hens fed OceanFeedTM Poultry seaweed blend from 50-62 weeks of age.
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