Efecto de la suplementación de Bifidobacterum animalis subsp. lactis encapsulada en los parámetros productivos y morfología de las vellosidades intestinales en conejos

Abstract

The use of antibiotics has given rise to the existence of bacteria resistance to medication and residues in food thus creating the current trend of finding new alternatives, one of them being probiotics. The main problem is the supply of probiotic to animals; thereby the need of finding a proper way to ration them out and have them consume it naturally arises. Encapsulation is a technique to achieve this challenge. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Bifidobacterium animalis subs. Lactis (BB12), which was encapsulated in oat straws, on the productive parameters and morphology of intestinal villi in rabbits. Forty-five wean rabbits of the New Zealand breed were used. These were randomly divided in three groups with three repetitions of five rabbits for each group; control group (CG), antibiotic group (AG), and probiotic group (PG). All were supplied with food and water ad libitum. Food supply, weight gain and feed conversion were recorded in a weekly basis for a month. After eight weeks, a group of randomly selected rabbits were slaughtered humanely in accordance with the official Mexican standard (NOM-033-ZOO-1995) and the intestines were obtained to carry out a histological study. The viability of the encapsulated bacteria remained stable (10X1010 UFC/mL) throughout the experiment, demonstrating that this type of encapsulation is recommendable in ensuring the survival of bacteria. Weight gain was higher in the AG y PG groups (P 0.05) in comparison to the control group. However, feed conversion did not show any differences (P 0.01) between the antibiotic and probiotic groups. In reference to intestinal villi, the antibiotic group showed the smallest size and the probiotic group demonstrated growth modulation. It was concluded that the use of encapsulated bifidobacterium in rabbits has a similar effect to that of antibiotics, hence it can be used as an alternative to them.