The study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with turmeric powder as a natural growth promoter on performance, carcass traits, humoral immune responses and serum biochemical parameters in male broiler chickens. A total of 300 one-day-old male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were allocated to four treatments with five replicates. The dietary treatments consisted of the basal diet as control, 3.3, 6.6 and 10 g/kg turmeric powder added to the basal diet. The curcumin content of the turmeric powder was 1.16±0.03% by weight. Body weight gain and daily feed intake of chickens at different periods were not influenced by the dietary treatments. Broilers fed turmeric supplemented diets exhibited better feed efficiency over the grower and entire experimental periods in comparison with control group (P<0.05). A significant decrease (P<0.05) in abdominal fat pad and liver relative weight was observed in chickens fed the supplemented diets. Inclusion of turmeric powder also caused a marked (P<0.05) reduction in serum triglyceride concentration but no significant impact of turmeric powder was observed on antibody titer production against Newcastle and influenza viruses. The obtained results suggested that dietary inclusion of turmeric powder failed to induce any significant improvement on performance indexes except feed efficiency of broiler chickens. Nevertheless application of turmeric powder in the diet proved to have positive influence on carcass abdominal fat and serum triglyceride concentration at slaughter age.

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This experiment was designed to investigate the effects of a dietary organic acid (OA) mixture and 2 fiber sources on performance, intestinal morphology, immune responses and gut microflora in broilers. A total of 390 one-day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were allocated to 6 dietary treatments with 5 replicate pens and 13 chicks each based on a factorial arrangement (2 × 3) in a completely randomized design. The experiment lasted 42 d. The following experimental diets and as well as their interaction were considered: a basal diet supplemented with or without OA (0 or 1 g/kg) and 2 fiber sources (sugar beet pulp [soluble fiber] or rice hull [insoluble fiber]; 0 or 30 g/kg). Dietary supplementation of OA increased daily weight gains of broilers across the entire rearing period ( P < 0.05). The dietary fibrous materials did not affect the performance of broilers. Antibody titer against influenza disease virus was higher in birds fed diets containing rice hull compared with other experimental groups ( P < 0.05). The population of Lactobacillus bacteria was greater in birds fed OA-added diets without or with 30 g/kg rice hull supplementation compared with other experimental groups ( P < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplemental OA improved performance of broilers, and dietary supplemental OA with rice hull enhanced humoral immune responses.

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Background Mushroom wastes are widely left from mushroom production industries and have been supposed to possess prebiotic, antimicrobial, antifungal and antioxidant properties. Due to difficulties with using antibiotic growth promoters in poultry diet, mushroom wastes seem to be a proper substitute for them. Therefore, present experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of oyster mushroom wastes on performance, immune responses and intestinal morphology of broiler chickens. To conduct the trial, total of 210-day-old broiler chickens (Ross 308) were assigned to 3 dietary treatments and 5 replicates of 14 mixed birds. Subsequently, performance, immunity and intestinal morphology parameters were evaluated throughout the experiment. Results 1 % mushroom wastes inclusion not significantly increased body weight (BW), weight gain (WG) and feed intake (FI) of chickens (P [ 0.05), while using 2 % of these wastes deteriorated BW and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P \ 0.05). At 28 days of age, villus height and crypt depth of jejunum were significantly increased using both levels of mushroom wastes, however, these indices impaired in ileum with the same mushroom levels (P \ 0.05). With the exception of antibody titer against Newcastle disease virus which was compromised using 2 %, other antibody-related parameters were not affected by supplementing 1 % mushroom wastes (P [ 0.05). The ratio of heterophil to lymphocyte also decreased by the waste inclusion (P \ 0.05). Conclusion Mushroom wastes in 1 % inclusion are able to improve some parameters of performance and immunity of broiler chicks. Nonetheless, supplementation in 2 % might compromise the mentioned indices.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of time of initiation of feeding after hatching and influence of diet composition on growth performance, carcass characteristics, digestive tract development and immune responses of broilers. A total of straight-run 420 Ross 308 broiler chicks were randomly allotted to six treatments with five replicates of 14 chicks each. The dietary treatments consisted of feeding a maize-soybean meal diet immediately posthatching until 14 days of age (Control), fasting for 24 or 48 h posthatching, feeding maize for 24–48 h posthatching, and feeding a maize gluten-dextrose pre-starter diet for 5 days posthatching. The study lasted from 0 to 42 days of age. For the entire 42-day period, chicks fasted or fed maize for 48 h posthatching or those fed the maize gluten-dextrose diet for 5 days posthatching had lower (P &lt; 0.05) feed intake and lower (P &lt; 0.05) weight gain compared with the Control. However, birds fasted or those fed maize for 24 or 48 h posthatching had similar (P &gt; 0.05) feed intake and weight gain as the Control. The duodenal villus height and villus height:crypt depth ratio were lower (P &lt; 0.05) and the duodenal crypt depth was higher (P &lt; 0.05) in birds fasted for 48 h posthatching compared with the Control. Conversely, birds fasted for 48 h posthatching had higher (P &lt; 0.05) jejunal villus height and villus height:crypt depth ratio and lower (P &lt; 0.05) jejunal crypt depth compared with the Control. The antibody titres against Newcastle disease was lower (P &lt; 0.05) for the groups other than the Control, whereas the antibody titres against Avian Influenza virus was lower (P &lt; 0.05) in birds fasted for 48 h posthatching and in those fed maize for 48 h posthatching compared with the Control. Also, birds fed maize for 24 h posthatching had lower (P &lt; 0.05) antibody titres against sheep red blood cells compared with the other treatments. These results indicated that feeding a maize-soybean meal starter diet immediately after hatch has a beneficial effect on growth performance and immune response of broilers and improves morphological development of the intestine.

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