Essential oils and prebiotic on broiler diets as feed additives

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of a combination of essential oils, prebiotics and antibiotics on broiler production. The treatments consisted of a normal diet meeting the nutritional requirements, and diets with a 5% reduction of nutritional requirements, supplemented or not with antibiotics (En+Sal) (10 g ton-1 enramycin and 125 g ton-1 salinomycin) or a blend of essential oils (EOFOS) (oregano, anise and lemon) plus fructooligosaccharides (125 g ton-1). A total of 1,152 male one-day-old broilers were randomized by weight and distributed into a 2*3 factorial design, consisting of six treatments with each treatment containing eight replicates of 24 birds per experimental unit. The Student-Newman-Keuls test was performed at 5% probability. Broiler performance was evaluated at 10, 21 and 42 days, intestinal morphometry was evaluated at 21 days, microbiological cecum counts at 33 days, blood parameters at 35 days and carcass and cuts yield at 42 days of age. Broilers fed reduced diets had a reduction in performance (P < 0.05). There was an interaction (P < 0.05) between diet type and prebiotics for jejunum villus height and villus height:crypt depth ratios for all intestinal segments. There was no effect (P > 0.05) of growth promoters and diet type on the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium populations within the gastrointestinal tract. There were no differences for duodenum or ileum villus heights (P > 0.05). Broilers fed EOFOS showed higher villus height in the jejunum at 21 days. There were no effects on blood parameters of different diets and growth promoters (P > 0.05), nor on carcass and cuts yield, abdominal fat and relative liver weight (P > 0.05). Broilers receiving the normal diet with EOFOS showed higher villus height in the jejunum at 21 days when compared to the normal diet with antibiotics and the normal diet without growth promoters. However, there were no effects of growth promoters and diet type on broiler performance at 42 days.

Effects of mannan-oligosaccharide supplementation on gut health, immunity, and production performance of broilers

“…Results of Muhammad et al (2020) and Bonato et al (2020) were also similar to our study they recorded that MOS supplemented group has significantly higher antibody titer against NDV as than control group but lower than probiotic group. Similar results were also found by Waqas et al (2019) and Borsatti et al (2020) as MOS supplemented group showed higher antibody titer against NDV as compared to control group.…”

Effect of different levels of green tea (Camellia sinensis) and mulberry (Morus alba) leaves powder on performance, carcass characteristics, immune response and intestinal morphology of broiler chickens

“…Villus height, crypt depth and the ratio of villus height to crypt depth are important indexes to evaluate intestinal digestion and absorption in animals. The higher VH indicates the improvement of the intestinal health of birds, which in addition to a greater capacity to absorb nutrients, creates uniformity and integrity in the mucosa (Borsatti et al., 2020). Tohidifar et al.…”

Orange essential oil in the diet of broilers: performance, organ biometrics, bone characteristics, and intestinal morphometry

“…The long villi correlate with the improvement of the intestinal health of birds, which provides better uniformity and integrity of the mucosa, besides the greater the capacity to absorb nutrients (Borsatti et al, 2020). The intestinal mucosa must have adequate morphofunctional characteristics since the absorption processes depend on the integrity of the epithelium.…”