Effects of a prebiotic on growth performance, blood parameters and immunity response of turkeys fed low protein diets

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of a prebiotics mixture (mannan oligosaccharides and betaglucans; TechnoMos®) on performance, blood biochemistry and immune response of turkeys fed low crude protein (CP) diets. A total of 576 one-day-old male turkeys of Nicholas-300 Commercial strain were divided into 6 dietary treatments as follows: Control (C) basal diet; C diet supplemented with 1.0 g/kg prebiotic; low protein diet having –5% CP; low protein (-5% CP) diet supplemented with 1.0 g/kg prebiotic; low protein diet having –10% CP; and low protein (-10% CP) diet supplemented with 1.0 g/kg prebiotic. Each treatment group was further subdivided into 6 replicates of 16 birds per replicate. Feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and body weight (BW) gain of birds were recorded in the different growth phases (1–28, 29–56 and 57–98 days of age, respectively). Blood samples were collected from turkeys to determine the effect of protein level and prebiotic on blood biochemistry and immune response. Dietary prebiotic supplementation did not significantly affect BW and gain, feed intake and FCR, blood traits, haemagglutination inhibition and immunoglobulins (IgT, IgG and IgM). However, dietary protein level had a significant effect on BW gain and FCR during the finisher phase, uric acid concentration at day 98, and IgM titre at day 49. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that supplementing prebiotics in turkey diets with different protein levels did not affect growth performance, blood biochemistry and haemagglutination-inhibition. Dietary protein level had more influence on the examined parameters than prebiotics.