Effect of dietary phytogenics (herbal mixture) supplementation on growth performance, nutrient utilization, antioxidative properties, and immune response in broilers

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 25; no. 15; pp. 14606 - 14613
• Main Authors: Saleh, Ahmed A., Ebeid, Tarek A., Abudabos, Alaeldein M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.05.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Feed - analysis; Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Animals; Antibiotics; Antibodies; Antioxidants - metabolism; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Chickens; Chickens - growth & development; Chickens - immunology; Chickens - metabolism; Chicks; Cholesterol; Cholesterol, HDL; Diet; Diet - veterinary; Dietary Supplements; Doxycycline; Drinking water; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Glutathione; Glutathione peroxidase; Glutathione Peroxidase - blood; Herbs; High density lipoprotein; Humoral immunity; Immune response; Immune system; Immunity; Immunity, Humoral; Juveniles; Male; Newcastle disease; Nutrient solutions; Nutrient utilization; Nutrients; Peroxidase; Plasma levels; Poultry; Research Article; Sulfates; Triglycerides; Triglycerides - blood; Viruses; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Antioxidative status; Broilers; Immunity; Herb mixture; Growth performance
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-1685-z

This experiment was conducted to study that effect of a phytogenics (herbal mixture) supplementation as alternative to antibiotics on the growth performance and immune response in broilers. Three thousand broiler male chicks at 1 day of age were housed in floor pens and divided into five experimental groups with five replicates of 120 birds each. The first group was fed the basal diet without any additive in feed or water; the second group was fed the basal diet, and the drinking water was supplemented with mixture of antibiotics (Doxycycline 1 g/5 L + Colistine sulfate 1 g/5 L) for the first 10 days of life. The other three treatments of chickens were fed the control diet supplemented with herbal mixture at a level of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 kg/ton, respectively. Dietary herb mixture supplementation improved growth performance significantly in comparison with control group. In addition, herb mixture supplementation reduced plasma total cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations, whereas, high density lipoprotein HDL-cholesterol and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) were increased significantly. Furthermore, herb mixture supplementation increased plasma levels of total protein and antibodies titers for Newcastle disease virus before and after the infection. It could be concluded that dietary herb mixture supplementation had positive effects on growth performance, antioxidative properties, and humoral immunity in broiler chickens.