Effects of lipid-based natural R2 products on performance and microbiome of broilers in comparison with common feed antimicrobial measure

Due to the recent restrictions of antibiotic, antibiotic as growth promoter (AGP) usage in animals and the negative effects of formaldehyde on animal performance, the animal feed industry has started to evaluate alternatives to AGP and formaldehyde for flock health and performance. R2 is Feed Energy’s patent pending low pKa, lipid-based line of products that provides nutrient-dense source of essential fatty acids along with feed biosecurity benefits. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of R2 product OptimizR2 on broiler health and performance in comparison with commonly used antimicrobial measures. One-day-old male Ross 308 chicks (n = 320) were placed in 40 cages of 8 birds/cage. The treatments consisted of feeds formulated to meet NRC with 4% added lipids to produce 4 dietary treatments (SBO: Basal Diet+Refined SoyOil, SBO-B: SBO+Bacillus product, SBO-F: SBO+Formaldehyde product, Basal Diet+OptimizR2). Treatments were randomly assigned to provide 10 replications/treatment. The birds were fed a starter and grower feeds from d 1 to d 21 and d 22 to d 35, respectively. Microbial phylogenetic diversity analysis of d-35 cecal samples of birds were conducted using 16S rRNA gene sequences. Performance parameters measured were body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), feed conversion (FC), and mortality. Differences in performance between groups were analyzed for significance (P < 0.05) using ANOVA. The numerical differences in BW (SBO = 4.30 lb, OptimizR2 = 4.50 lb, SBO-B = 4.33 lb, SBO-F = 4.19 lb) and ADG (SBO = 0.12, OptimizR2 = 0.13, SBO-B = 0.12, SBO-F = 0.12) at the end of the trial were different (P < 0.05). The dietary addition of R2 to the broiler diets also improved FC (P < 0.05). Cecal microbiota showed much higher diversity with beneficial bacteria in R2 group. R2 preserve higher population of lactobacillus and eliminate harmful gram-negative bacteria compare with bacillus group. Gut beneficial lactobacillus level was low in formaldehyde group. The addition of R2 to feeds improves performance and offers benefits to the microbiome in broilers.

Key Words: broiler, microbiome, nutrition.

Presented at the 9th Symposium on Gut Health in Production of Food Animals, St. Louis, USA, 2021. For information on the next edition, click here.