PROBIOTIC USE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF COYPUS

The effects of some probiotics on the growth of the young of standard coypu and on their health were tested in a trial conducted on the Farm of Fur-bearing Animals of the Research Institute of Animal Production at Nitra. The trial involved nine newly established families of coypu s (one male and three females) raised in a shed in cages with water ru ns and which received a pelleted mixture KK. The experimental animals were divided into three experimental and one control group. Probiotics mixed with meals were administered in the second half of pregnancy, t heir administration continued until the eighth month of age of the you ng. In the 1st experimental group the animals received the microbiotic preparation LACO (Lactobacillus acidophillus and Escherichia coli in milk powder) at a dose of 0.2 g per young until the age of four months and 0.3 g for the older animals. The animals of the second experiment al group received the microbiotic MIKROBION SUPERMIX 0.1 TS (Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus faecalis subsp. zymogenes, Streptococcus faeci um var. durans in milk powder) at a dose of 1 kg per 1,000 kg feed twi ce a week The third experimental group was given the antibiotic premix IVAMIX (Linkospection concentrate 0.85 g/kg, rapeseed oil, wheat flou r) at a dose of 1 kg per 1,000 kg feed for seven days once a month. Th e young weight was determined by monthly weighing from birth to the ei ghth month of age. The results of the records were processed and asses sed by statistical methods. The health of the animals in all groups di d riot change during the trial. In the trial, positive effects of micr obiotics (particularly of the preparation MIKROBION SUPERMIX 0.1 TS) w ere found as exerted on the live weight of the born young as well as o n their growth in the first two months of age. The positive effect of microbiotics was also determined in the fifth month of age when the fe ed ration formulation was changed (supplemental feeding of green fodde r). The growth of the animals was positively influenced by administrat ion of the antibiotic premix IVAMIX in the third to seventh month of a ge. The effect of sex on the live weight was observed in the fourth mo nth of age in favor of the males, while it was more conspicuous from t he sixth month, but no relationship to probiotic administration was de termined.