Effect of Dietary Mannan Oligosaccharide from Bio-Mos or SAF-Mannan on Live Performance of Broiler Chickens

A 42-d broiler pen trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) from either of 2 commercial products, Bio-Mos (Alltech Inc., Nicholasville, KY) or SAF-Mannan (S. I. LeSaffre, Cedex, France) each at 2 levels of inclusion on live performance. The MOS, derived from the outer portion of yeast cell walls, is reported to have several beneficial modes of action including 1) pathogen adsorption ( agglutination); 2) improved intestinal integrity ( e. g., villi height); and 3) immune modulation. Diets were fed in 3 phases, and treatments included a control, 2 Bio-Mos treatments (1.0 kg/ton in starter and 0 or 0.5 kg/ ton in grower and finisher feeds), and 2 SAF-Mannan treatments (0.5 kg/ton in starter and 0 or 0.5 kg/ ton in grower and finisher feeds), according to the manufacturers' recommendations. Birds fed Bio-Mos at 1.0/0.5/0.5 (starter/grower/finisher) kg/ton diets had significantly greater BW at 42 d than birds fed control or SAF-Mannan-supplemented diets, whereas results for the Bio-Mos 1.0/0/0 kg/ton diets were intermediate. Supplementation of diets with Bio-Mos at 1.0/0.5/0.5 kg/ton may improve broiler BW at market ages compared with the unsupplemented diets. Feed consumption was lower from 0 to 21 d in the SAF-Mannan treatments compared with other treatments. No significant differences were found for feed conversion or mortality for any of the treatments. Overall, Bio-Mos had a greater effect on bird BW compared with the other variables measured.