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Effects of Supplementing Banana (Musa spp.) as Prebiotic, Probiotic (Toyocerin®) and Their Combination on Growth Performance, Carcass and Meat Quality in Broilers

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Krittaphak Buranawit and Watchara Laenoi

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The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementing banana

as prebiotic on growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of broiler

chickens and also to compare them with commercial probiotic and their combination. The

experiment was conducted in 200 day-old male chicks. Birds were randomly allocated to

4 treatment groups (50 chicks per treatment). Dietary treatments consisted of basal diet

(CON) or the basal diet with 0.5% of banana as prebiotic (PRE), 0.2% of commercial

probiotic Toyocerin® (PRO) or 0.7% of their combination (SYN). The results showed that

dietary supplementations significantly affected average daily gain and feed conversion

ratio of broilers during the period of 0 to 21 days (p<0.05). A combination of banana and

probiotic (SYN) showed the greatest potential to improve growth performance at the end

of this trial. For carcass characteristics, carcass yield, relative weights of viscera and dressing

percentage were not different among treatments (p>0.05). There were also no significant

differences among dietary treatments in meat quality traits, i.e. pH values, drip loss and

thawing loss (p>0.05). The results suggested that bananas could be used as a feed additive

to improve growth performance of broiler chickens during 1- to 21-d of age without adverse

effects on carcass and meat quality.

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Banana; Broilers; Carcass; Prebiotic; Performance