Probiotics in Poultry, Do They Work?

GHASOUB S. GHADBAN

Al-Ghadban Poultry Company, P. O. Box-287, Tulkarm, Palestine

Abstract

GHASOUB S. GHADBAN, 2000. Probiotics in poultry, do they work? Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 6: 439-453

As a result of a public food poisoning from infected with S. interetides eggs in England in 1988-1989, egg consumption decreased with 90%. That anxiously put the question regarding the Salmonellae resistance.
Probiotics stimulate natural resistance of the organism through increasing the number of antibodies and increasing the effectiveness of macrophages.
The reviewed evidences in this study, represent main source of information ofr identifying the possibilities, different alternatives to antibiotics probiotics to be used in poultry production.
The complex microflora present in the gastrointestinal tract of the birds is effective in providing resistance to disease, but this protective flora can be altered by dietary and environmental influences. The probiotic treatment is re-establishing the natural condition which exists in the wild animal but which has been disrupted by modern trends in condition used for rearing birds, and in modern approaches to nutrition and disease therapy.
Key words: probiotics, poultry production, Salmonella interetides, methods of inclusion