Effect Of Nano-Silver Particales Supplementation In Drinking Water On Performance And Intestinal Microflora Population Of Growing Poultry

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of drinking water supplementation with 0, 5 and 10 ppm of Nano-silver particles (AgNPs) / liter on performance, carcass characteristics and gut micro-flora population of grower rabbits from 63 to 91d old, broiler chicks from 1 to 42 day old and grower Japanese quails from 7 to 42 days of age. Results showed that, different levels of AgNPs in drinking water hadn’t any significant effect on body weight, body weight gain (BWG) or FCR of rabbits. Concerning to same traits in broiler chicks; the control group performed well compared with supplemented groups. Both BWG and FCR for Japanese quails recorded best values for 10 ppm supplemented group compared with control group. In all tested poultry species, the levels of 5 ppm and 10 ppm resulted in a reduction in total viable bacteria, pathogenic bacteria representing E Coli and beneficial bacteria representing Lactobacillus of intestinal gut especially for 10 ppm level causing negative effect on performance of grower broiler chicks but less on grower rabbits and Japanese quail, suggesting that, both species may be less sensitive for existence of AgNPs in drinking water, while broiler chicks may be more sensitive for this issue. Most of carcass characteristics were not significantly affected by existence or level of drinking water AgNPs supplementation except liver percent of grower quail, which needs to undergoing more research works.