Background: Sea mustards are traditionally consumed as human food in many Asian countries. However, owing to the large consumption of seaweed, there are a substantial number of by-products produced during processing. These by-products after fermentation can provide a good alternative nutrient source for broilers and serve as a recycled resource reducing the environmental pollution of the seaweed industry. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of fermented sea mustard by-product (FSM) supplementation on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, excreta microflora, blood profiles, relative organ weight, and meat quality in broilers. The treatments were: control (CON), basal diet; FSM, CON +2 g kg-1 FSM.
Results: During days 1 to 35, with the supplementation of 2 g kg-1 FSM, body weight gain (BWG) increased (P < 0.05), whereas the feed conversion ratio (FCR) decreased (P < 0.05). On day 35, with the supplementation of 2 g kg-1 FSM, excreta Lactobacillus counts increased (P < 0.05), and the excreta Escherichia coli counts decreased (P < 0.05). There were no significant effects (P > 0.05) on nutrient digestibility, blood profile, relative organ weight, and breast meat quality of broilers fed with FSM diets.
Conclusion: Dietary supplementation of 2 g kg-1 FSM can improve growth performance, and shifted excreta microflora by increasing the proliferation of Lactobacillus counts and by decreasing E. coli counts. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.
Keywords: broiler; fermented sea mustard by-product; growth performance; meat quality.
© 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.