A REVIEW ON THE EFFECT OF BIOMOS® AS FEED ADDITIVE ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS.

ABSTRACT In the past few decades, success in poultry farming was largely dependent on the interests and efforts geared towards maximizing the efficiency of growth performance and meat yield. However, current development in livestock and poultry nutrition are focusing more attention on how animal agriculture affects the environment and human food safety. The routine use of antibiotics for disease prevention and growth promotion at sub-therapeutic levels had come under severe scrutiny and criticism because of the potential development of antibiotic resistant human pathogenic bacteria after long use. This apparent threat compelled the European Union and many other advanced countries to ban the use of antibiotics as feed additives for growth promotion. This development was responsible for extensive exploration for alternative feed additives for enhancement of immune competence and growth promotion in broiler chickens and at the same time ensuring food safety in the final consumer. Based on relevant scientific literatures, Mannan Oligosaccharides (MOS) and its commercial product BIO-MOS® is an excellent prebiotic that has shown potentials to be applied as safer alternative to antibiotic feed additives for growth promotion. Mos has a remarkable ability of selectively stimulating the replication and growth of beneficial bacteria in the large intestine thus suppressing the harmful microbes in the gut, and by so doing modulates the immune response, improves the integrity of the intestinal mucosa, and promotes growth and feed efficiency, in the host animal. Most of the published reports on the subject matter were in agreement that BIO-MOS® has beneficial effect on growth performance parameters of broiler chicks and therefore has the potential to be applied as effective substitute for in-feed antibiotics, while few reports disagreed, hence the inconsistent results of previous studies. The current study is aimed at reviewing the growth performance effect of Bio-mos® as feed additive in broiler chicken production. This study suggests that MOS could be a useful tool to maintain intestinal health and growth performance of broiler chickens under challenged or sub-optional production system. It is also possible that the levels of MOS used in some of the published studies reviewed were not sufficient to elicit a pronounced response, hence the sparse and inconsistent results. This warrants further study with higher levels of MOS inclusion in the diets.