Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of pig skin collagen supplementation on growth performance, organ weight, blood characteristics, and intestinal microbiota in broilers. A total of 50 Ross 308 broilers were used for 2 weeks. The five dietary treatments were as follows: NC) basal diet, PC) NC + fish collagen powder 0.1%, T1) NC + pig skin collagen 0.1%, T2) NC + pig skin collagen 0.5%, and T3) NC + pig skin collagen 1.0%. The body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were not affected (p > 0.05) by the dietary treatments in this experiment. Additionally, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the organ weights among the treatments. Broilers fed T1, T2 and T3 diets had higher (p < 0.05) white blood cell (WBC) counts than the broilers fed the NC and PC diets. The Lactobacillus counts in the excreta were improved (p < 0.05) in the broilers fed the T1 and T2 diets. Moreover, the Salmonella counts in the excreta were decreased (p < 0.05) in the broilers fed the PC and T1 diets. In conclusion, supplementation of pig skin collagen in diets improved the white blood cells (WBCs) in the blood and Lactobacillus counts in the excreta, and reduced the Salmonella counts in the excreta. However, when pig skin collagen was increased in the diets, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05). Therefore, the addition of 0.1% pig skin collagen in the feed provided beneficial effects on the blood characteristics and the intestinal microbiota environment.