This study was conducted to evaluate the e#ect of garlic (Allium sativum) meal on the intestinal mucosal morphology of broiler chickens between ,+ and ., days of age. A total of +2**, ,+ days old Ross-*2 broiler chicks were weighed and randomly allotted into *, *.+,/, *.,/, *./, + and ,ῌ dietary garlic meal groups of each +** birds. Experimental diets were formulated by addition of each level of garlic meal to commercial finisher mash diet (CP : ,*../ῌ, ME :-,+-* kcal/kg), and fed ad libitum for ,+ d. At day .,, +/ chicks from each treatment were randomly killed to obtain intestinal samples. Villus height, epithelial thickness, goblet cell numbers, crypt depth and the ratio of crypt depth to villus height in each intestinal segment were compared using a light microscope. Garlic meal as a feed additive significantly enhanced villus height and crypt depth and decreased epithelial thickness and goblet cell numbers in duodenum, jejunum and ileum of birds. Fundamentally, jejunum and ileum revealed an almost similar morphological alteration to that in the duodenum except that dietary garlic meal supplement resulted in an increase in the ratio of crypt depth to villus height in duodenum but a decrease in jejunum and ileum. In present study, small intestinal morphological changes in chickens due to dietary garlic meal supplement demonstrate that absorptive process could be activated by garlic meal as an antibiotics alternative growth promoter.

Nowadays, use of prebiotics as feed and food additives has received increasing interest because of the beneficial effects of prebiotics on the health of animals and humans. One of the beneficial effects of prebiotics is stimulation of immune system, which can be direct or indirect through increasing population of beneficial microbes or probiotics, especially lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria, in the gut. An important mechanism of action of probiotics and prebiotics, by which they can affect the immune system, is changing the expression of cytokines. The present review tried to summarize the findings of studies that investigated the effects of prebiotics on immune system with focusing on their effects on cytokine expression. Generally, most of reviewed studies indicated beneficial effects for prebiotics in terms of improving immune system, by increasing the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines, while reducing the expressions of proinflammatory cytokines. However, most of studies mainly considered the indirect effects of prebiotics on the immune system (through changing the composition and population of gut microbiota), and their direct effects still need to be further studied using prebiotics with different degree of polymerization in different hosts.

We investigated the effects of grape pomace (GP) and vitamin E on the performance, antioxidant status, immune response, gut morphology and histopathological responses in broiler chickens. Two hundred and fifty male broiler chickens (Ross 308) were allocated to five dietary treatments (50 birds/treatment) in a completely randomized design. The experimental diets were as follows: i) Control corn-soybean meal diet (C); ii) C + Vitamin E (200 mg/kg of α-tocopherol acetate); iii) The diet containing 5%GP; iv) The diet containing 7.5% GP; v) The diet containing 10% GP. No differences were found in performance of the experimental birds. Birds fed 7.5% GP showed a significant increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidise (GSH-Px) activity and reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration. Antibody titer against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) at 42 days (d) of age in the control and 7.5% GP fed groups were lower than others. The primary IgM concentration of birds fed 10% GP was higher than the birds fed the control diet, the vitamin E supplemented diet or the diet containing 5% GP. The secondary titer against sheep red blood cells (SRBC) was increased significantly in the birds fed 10% GP and the secondary IgG concentration of birds fed 10% GP was higher than the birds fed the control diet and the diets containing 5% or 7.5% GP. In duodenum part of small intestine, villus height/crypt depth ratio and muscularis thickness were decreased. The results of the present study suggest that the inclusion of up to 10% GP in diets did not adversely affect broiler chickens' performance and improved the antioxidant and immune responses of broiler chickens. ______________________________________________________________________________________

Exposure to high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acid predisposes spermatozoa to lipid peroxidation, resulting in their decreased fertility. Ginger powder (GP), which is high in antioxidative compounds, was fed to aged breeder roosters to improve their reproductive performance. Seventy-five 52-wk-old Cobb 500 breeder roosters randomly received either 0 (GP0), 15 (GP15), or 30 (GP30) g of GP/kg of diet for 14 consecutive wk, during which time their seminal characteristics were evaluated every 2 wk. At the end of the trial, semen samples were tested for determination of sperm fatty acid (FA) concentration and seminal plasma total antioxidant capacity. Furthermore, sperm penetration was assayed, and using 225 artificially inseminated hens, fertility and hatchability rates were determined. Dietary GP improved sperm forward motility, live sperm percentage, and sperm plasma membrane integrity. These were associated with a decrease in the percentage of abnormal sperm. The seminal TBA reactive species concentration was lower in birds belonging to the GP30 treatment in comparison with those in the GP15 and GP0 treatments. The feeding of GP resulted in overall decreases and increases in sperm saturated and unsaturated FA, respectively. The n-6:n-3 FA ratio of sperm was decreased in the GP30 group in comparison with controls. The highest levels of sperm C20:4(n-6) and C22:6(n-3) FA were recorded in the GP15 and GP30 treatments, respectively. A higher percentage of sperm C22:4(n-6) FA was found in GP-fed roosters. Seminal plasma total antioxidant capacity was considerably improved by the GP15 and GP30 treatments. Further, a higher number of perivitelline membrane sperm penetration holes was recorded for the GP30 treatment in comparison with the GP15 and GP0 treatments. Interestingly, although hatchability, chick quality, and embryonic mortality were not affected by dietary treatment, fertility rate was improved by the feeding of GP. In conclusion, dietary GP improved most of the seminal characteristics evaluated in aged roosters of this study, suggesting that it has potential for use in attenuating age-related subfertility in senescent male commercial broiler breeders.

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This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of a medical plant mixture and probiotic on performance, blood parameters, digestibility of some nutrients, and health status of suckling Holstein calves. Thirty newborn calves (1-10 days) with 42 ± 8 kg of average birth weight were used in a factorial arrangement (3 Â 2) with 6 treatments and 5 replicate. The treatments were: (1) control diet, (2) control diet þ2g probiotic per day, (3) control diet þ 1.5% medical plant, (4) control diet þ1.5% medical plant þ2g probiotic per day, (5) control diet þ 3% medical plant and (6) control diet þ3% medical plant þ2g probiotic per day. During first month, experimental factors have no effect on starter and hay intake, whereas total DMI was affected by herbal (H) effect in second month (p < .01). Calves fed on H1.5 diet had the highest starter and total DMI and calves fed on PH3 diet had the lowest value. Daily weight gain (DWG) was affected significantly by H (p < .01) whereas no effect from P was observed. Treatments had no significant effect on blood glucose, cholesterol and albumin content, whereas addition of H1.5 in starter feed increased beta-hydroxy butyric acid (BHBA) concentration in comparison to other groups (p < .05). In conclusion and based on better growth performance, it is recommended to feed H1.5 to milk suckling calves and feeding herbal additives with probiotic is not recommended. ARTICLE HISTORY

An experiment was conducted on broiler chickens to study the effects of different dietary fats (Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), fish oil, soybean oil, or their mixtures, as well as palm oil, as a more saturated fat), with a as fed dose of 7% for single fat and 3.5 + 3.5% for the mixtures, on Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors (PPARs) gene expression and its relation with body fat deposits. The CLA used in this experiment was CLA LUTA60 which contained 60% CLA, so 7% and 3.5% dietary inclusions of CLA LUTA60 were equal to 4.2% and 2.1% CLA, respectively. Higher abdominal fat pad was found in broiler chickens fed with a diet containing palm oil compared to chickens in the other experimental groups (P ≤ 0.05). The diets containing CLA resulted in an increased fat deposition in the liver of broiler chickens (P ≤ 0.05). The only exception was related to the birds fed with diets containing palm oil or fish oil + soybean oil, where contents of liver fat were compared to the CLA + fish oil treatment. PPARγ gene in adipose tissue of chickens fed with palm oil diet was up-regulated compared to other treatments (P ≤ 0.001), whereas no significant differences were found in adipose PPARγ gene expression between chickens fed with diets containing CLA, fish oil, soybean oil or the mixture of these fats. On the other hand, the PPARα gene expression in liver tissue was up-regulated in response to the dietary fish oil inclusion and the differences were also significant for both fish oil and CLA + fish oil diets compared to the diets with palm oil, soybean oil or CLA as the only oil source (P ≤ 0.001). In conclusion, the results of present study showed that there was a relationship between the adipose PPARγ gene up-regulation and abdominal fat pad deposition for birds fed with palm oil diet, while no deference was detected in n-3 and n-6 fatty acids, as well as CLA on PPARγ down regulation in comparison to a more saturated fat. When used on its own, fish oil was found to be a more effective fat in up-regulating hepatic PPARα gene expression and this effect was related to a less fat deposition in liver tissue. A negative correlation coefficient (−0.3) between PPARα relative gene expression and liver tissue fat content confirm the anti-lipogenic effect of PPARα, however, the change in these parameters was not completely parallel.

The applications of conventional culture-dependent assays to quantify bacteria populations are limited by their dependence on the inconsistent success of the different culture-steps involved. In addition, some bacteria can be pathogenic or a source of endotoxins and pose a health risk to the researchers. Bacterial quantification based on the real-time PCR method can overcome the above-mentioned problems. However, the quantification of bacteria using this approach is commonly expressed as absolute quantities even though the composition of samples (like those of digesta) can vary widely; thus, the final results may be affected if the samples are not properly homogenized, especially when multiple samples are to be pooled together before DNA extraction. The objective of this study was to determine the correlation coefficients between four different methods of expressing the output data of real-time PCR-based bacterial quantification. The four methods were: (i) the common absolute method expressed as the cell number of specific bacteria per gram of digesta; (ii) the Livak and Schmittgen, ΔΔCt method; (iii) the Pfaffl equation; and (iv) a simple relative method based on the ratio of cell number of specific bacteria to the total bacterial cells. Because of the effect on total bacteria population in the results obtained using ΔCt-based methods (ΔΔCt and Pfaffl), these methods lack the acceptable consistency to be used as valid and reliable methods in real-time PCR-based bacterial quantification studies. On the other hand, because of the variable compositions of digesta samples, a simple ratio of cell number of specific bacteria to the corresponding total bacterial cells of the same sample can be a more accurate method to quantify the population.