IMPACT OF PROBIOTIC (Lactobacillus planterium) SUPPLEMENTATION ON PRODUCTIVE AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF GROWING RABBITS UNDER EGYPTIAN CONDITIONS

The aim of this work was to study the effect of probiotic (Lactobacillus planterium) supplementation in diet on productive and physiological performance, intestinal microbial examination, histomorphology and economic efficiency of growing rabbits. A total of 36 four weeks old White New Zealand (NZW) rabbits were randomly divided into 3 groups with 3 replicates (4 rabbit in each). The first group was fed a basal diet as a control group according to NRC (1977). The 2 nd and 3 rd groups were fed on basal diet supplemented with 0.25 and 0.5 g of probiotic / kg diet (Lactobacillus planterium 1×10 6 CFU/g), respectively during the experimental period (4-12 weeks of age). The Results revealed that by supplementation of rabbit diets with probiotic (Lactobacillus planterium) has positive effects (P≤0.05) on both body weight and feed conversion ratio. Moreover, the results indicated that there was significant (P≤ 0.05) increase in serum total protein, serum albumin and serum globulin of the treated groups as compared to the control group. Addition of probiotic to rabbit diets caused to improve production of mucus, beneficial microflora count and clearly decreased Escherichia coli count in intestine when compared with control group. Conclusively, it can be concluded that probiotic (Lactobacillus Plantarium) at the tested levels can be applied in rabbit rations to improve the productive and physiological performance, as well as, gut health under Egyptian environmental conditions.