Effects of Dietary Fermented Garlic on the Growth Performance, Relative Organ Weights, Intestinal Morphology, Cecal Microflora and Serum Characteristics of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding broilers with garlic fermented by Leuconostoc citreum SK2556. A total of 250 male broiler chicks was randomly housed into 25 floor pens. Five dietary treatments with five replicates of 10 chicks each (n=50 chicks/ treatment). A corn and soybean meal based diet was used as the control diet (NC). The experimental diets were formulated by mixing the basal diet either with antibiotics (10 ppm; PC) or fermented garlic (FG) at the concentrations of 0.1% (FG1), 0.3% (FG3) or 0.5% (FG5) in diets. Daily weight gain, feed intake, and feed:gain ratio were not affected by any of the dietary treatments. Average daily gain on day 21 linearly increased (p=0.024) with increasing FG levels. The relative weight of the bursa of Fabricius showed a progressive decline with increasing the FG levels. Jejunal villus height was not influenced by dietary treatments. Villus width linearly decreased as FG levels increased (p=0.17). Jejunal crypt depth was significantly lower (p<0.05) in the FG1 and FG3 groups compared with the NC group. Villus height:crypt depth ratio linearly increased (p=0.018) with increasing FG levels. The population of cecal microflora was not altered by dietary treatments. Broiler chickens fed the FG5 diet exhibited (p<0.05) higher blood levels of total protein and cholesterol compared with those fed the NC diet. Collectively, the results show that dietary FG marginally affected growth performance, especially during the first days rearing, improved intestinal morphology, and altered blood characteristics of broiler chickens.

Diet Supplementation with a Bioactive Pomace Extract from Olea europaea Partially Mitigates Negative Effects on Gut Health Arising from a Short-Term Fasting Period in Broiler Chickens

“…Moreover, the increase of OE in diets linearly decreased CD. This is in agreement with other studies of broiler chickens, that have shown reduced jejunal CD in birds fed with garlic extract compared to a control [48]. According to these authors, a reduced CD suggests a lower turnover rate to maintain VH and, hence, lower energy needs to maintain gut integrity.…”

Effect of dietary inclusion of fermented sea mustard by‐product on growth performance, blood profiles, and meat quality in broilers

“…Fermentation is commonly used in southeast Asian countries (South Korea, China, and Japan) for the preservation of foodstuffs and to increase nutritional value . Lactobacillus buchneri , Bacillus subtilis , and Bacillus licheniformis are widely used for feed fermentation and have been applied with beneficial effects in feed for broilers . Seaweeds and seaweed extracts have been used to feed livestock for a long time, and the beneficial effects on broilers include improving growth performance and immune status and altering the microflora in the digestive tract .…”

Effects of dietary supplementation with detoxified Rhus verniciflua sap on egg production, yolk lipid and intestinal microflora in laying hens

“…Each plate was incubated at 37°C, for 24 to 72 h and colonies were then counted. Results obtained were presented as base-10 logarithm colony-forming units per gram of cecal digesta [ 16 ].…”