Effect of including hydroponic forages in broiler diets on performance and selected gut microbiological indicators

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the impact of adding hydroponic green forage made from corn and oats on productive variables and gut microbiota in broiler chickens. Two hundred Ross 308 broiler chickens were used. Birds were randomly allocated to four dietary treatments with five replicates per treatment, as follows: (Control), basal diet; (BD + HGMF), basal diet supplemented with hydroponic green corn forage; (BD + HGMOF), basal diet supplemented with hydroponic green corn and oat forage; and (BD + HGOF), basal diet supplemented with hydroponic green oat forage. Treatments that included hydroponic forage were offered fresh, for a period of 4 h, to simulate grazing from 09:00 to 13:00 h, in outdoor pens with 1 h of prior feed restriction. The results show that, at the finishing stage, birds in the control treatment showed greater weight gain with 2.52 kg, showing differences with the treatments that were offered some type of hydroponic forage in the diet (P < 0.05); however, feed consumption did not show differences (P > 0.05) between the control treatment and HGMF with average consumption of 3.81 and 3.40 kg respectively, while birds that were provided some type of hydroponic forage did not show significant differences. Regarding the FCR, carcass yield, and weight of the meat pieces, no differences were found between treatments (P > 0.05). Concerning gut microbiota quantification, hydroponic forage supplementation did not significantly influence fecal total aerobic mesophiles (TAM) and Enterobacteriaceae counts in the different treatments.