Effects of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and phytase Administration on Growth Performance and Organ Weights in Broiler Chickens During the Hot-Humid Season

Zakari, Friday Ocheja and Okoro, Promise and Agweche, Onuche Shalom and Idoga, Enokela Shaibu and Oladipo, Olusola Olalekan and Jonathan, Kolawole Bamidele and Adaji, Ocholi Gideon and Emennaa, Paulinus and Sati, Nancy and Uchendu, Chidiebere and Aluwong, Tagang (2026) Effects of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and phytase Administration on Growth Performance and Organ Weights in Broiler Chickens During the Hot-Humid Season. Journal of World's Poultry Research. 168 - 180. ISSN 2322455X

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Abstract

In tropical regions, heat stress reduces broiler chicken productivity, highlighting the need for developing alternative growth promoters to replace antibiotics. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary phytase (Axtra® Phytase) and the probiotic Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (B. amyloliquefaciens) on the growth performance and feed intake in broiler chickens during the hot-humid season in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. A total of 180 broiler chickens, 15 days old, were randomly allocated to four experimental groups. Each group consisted of 45 chickens with three replicates per group and 15 chickens per replicate. The dietary groups included a control group fed the basal diet without additives (Ctrl), a probiotic group supplemented with B. amyloliquefaciens at 1 Ã� 10⁹ CFU/kg (Prob), a phytase group supplemented with Axtra® Phytase enzyme at 200 FTU/kg (Phy), and a combined group that received probiotic and phytase (Phy + Prob). The broiler chickens experienced challenging environmental conditions throughout the study, with average measurements of 29.00 ± 0.40°C for dry-bulb temperature, 68 ± 1.54 for relative humidity, and 27.99 ± 0.50°C for the temperature-humidity index. All these factors were higher than the optimal range for broiler thermal comfort. The live weight, weight gain, feed intake, organ weight, and feed conversion ratio were assessed. On day 42, live and organ weights in the treated groups were significantly higher than those in Ctrl. All supplemented groups indicated increased weight gain. Feed intake was higher in the Ctrl and Prob groups compared to the Phy and Phy + Prob groups. These findings indicated that supplementation with phytase, alone or in combination with B. amyloliquefaciens, improved growth performance, feed efficiency, and organ development while modulating feed intake during heat stress. The present results demonstrated that B. amyloliquefaciens, phytase, or their combination enhanced growth performance, organ weights, feed efficiency, and overall productivity in broiler chickens subjected to heat stress during the hot-humid season in Nigeria. The current results supported the use of phytase and B. amyloliquefaciens in tropical poultry production. © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Bacillus amyloliquefaciens; Broiler chicken; Feed intake; Growth performance; Hot-humid season; Phytase
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Divisions:	Journal of World's Poultry Research (JWPR)
Page Range:	168 - 180
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of World's Poultry Research
Journal Index:	Scopus
Volume:	16
Number:	2
Publisher:	Scienceline Publication
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.36380/jwpr.2026.16
ISSN:	2322455X
Depositing User:	Dr. Daryoush Babazadeh
URI:	https://eprints.science-line.com/id/eprint/1766

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