B. Poursina; P. Soleimani Roudi; M. Sedghi; A. Taibipour
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of dry peppermint (Mentha piperita L.), thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) and especially chicory (Chicorium intybus L.) leaves on performance and intestinal morphology of broilers using 360 one-day old chicks, in a completely randomized design with three treatments, ...
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The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of dry peppermint (Mentha piperita L.), thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) and especially chicory (Chicorium intybus L.) leaves on performance and intestinal morphology of broilers using 360 one-day old chicks, in a completely randomized design with three treatments, three replicates and 40 chickens in each replicate (20 male and 20 female). Treatments were arranged in: control group, 3Kg of chicory for treatment 2 and 1Kg of peppermint+1Kg of thyme+1Kg of chicory for treatment 3. The entire experimental period was divided into three phases; 1-10 days, 11-24 days and 25-42 days. Weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were evaluated. On 42th day, to assess the effects of treatments on villus length, crypt depth and the ratio of the villus height to the crypt depth in Jejunum and ileum, 6 birds from each treatment were slaughtered. Results indicated that the addition of these herbal plants, significantly increased body weight gain, feed consumption and improved feed conversion ratio (p<0.05). The maximum body weight gain and the best feed conversion ratio were related to the chicory treatment and the most of feed consumption was related to the third treatment (p<0.05). The morphological measurements of the jejunum, ileum and the ratio of the villus height to the crypt depth showed no response to dietary inclusion of these plants as compared with the control diet (p>0.05). In conclusion, the results from the current study suggest that feeding peppermint, thyme and especially chicory increases the growth performance and had no effect on intestinal morphology of broiler chickens.
M. Tajodini; F. Samadi; S.R. Hashemi; S. Hassani; A. Ghasemnejad
Abstract
A study was designed to investigate the effects of different levels of artichoke (Cynara scoolymus L.) powder on performance and humoral immune response of broiler chickens from 0-42 days of age. A total of 300 one-day-old Ross 308 broilers were randomly allocated to four treatments consisting of five ...
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A study was designed to investigate the effects of different levels of artichoke (Cynara scoolymus L.) powder on performance and humoral immune response of broiler chickens from 0-42 days of age. A total of 300 one-day-old Ross 308 broilers were randomly allocated to four treatments consisting of five replications with 15 chicks each. The groups were assigned to receive the treatment diets as follows: basal diet (control group) and control diet supplemented with 1.5% and 3% artichoke powder and 300 mg vitamin E. Body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were determined during the whole experimental period. The serum antibody level against Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) was measured by hemagglutination-inhibition test (HI) in two periods after vaccination during days 14 and 28 and carcass traits of broilers were evaluated at the end of experiment. Results showed that, the titer against Newcastle virus at 42 days of age showed significant difference among treatments, the highest titer was found for the treatment containing 1.5% of the artichokes (p<0.05). Weight of internal organs, except pancreas weight, did not differ among treatments. Generally, this study showed the positive impact of artichoke on immune system of broiler chickens. Therefore it can be used in poultry nutrition.
