Abstract: This experiment was conducted to study the effects of probiotics on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance of growing minks. Ninety six healthy minks at the age of 60-day-old were randomly divided into 4 groups with 24 replicates (12 males and 12 females) in each group. The control group of minks was offered a basal diet, the group 1 to 3 were fed with a basal diet supplemented with 0.06 g Bacillus licheniformis and 0.06 g Bacillus subtilis, 12 mL Lactobacillus and 6 g yeast, and 0.06 g Bacillus licheniformis, 0.06 g Bacillus subtilis, 12 mL Lactobacillus and 6 g yeast, respectively. The trials of feeding and metabolism were used to analyze the average daily feed intake, average daily gain, feed to gain ratio (F/G), digestibility of crude protein, digestibility of crude fat, nitrogen deposition, net protein utilization and protein biological value. The results showed that compared with the control group, dry matter digestibility of group 1 and crude fat digestibility of group 2 decreased significantly (P<0.05), but the growth performance and nitrogen balance of minks, as well as nutrient digestibility of female minks had no significant difference (P>0.05). In conclusion, supplementation of probiotics in diet could not significantly improve growth performance, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance of growing minks. There was no need to add probiotics in production of healthy growing minks.

Key words: mink; Bacillus licheniformis; Bacillus subtilis; Lactobacillus; yeast