Assessment of the broilers performance, gut healthiness and carcass characteristics in response to dietary inclusion of dried coriander, turmeric and thyme
Abstract
The objectives of the current study were to evaluate the performance responses, guts healthiness, and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens fed on formulated diets included dried coriander, turmeric and thyme. Unsexed commercially available chicks were enrolled into five experimental treatments each of eighty birds with four replicates per treatment. The birds were housed in deep litter clean pens. The experimental groups were as follow: Control; coriander; thyme; turmeric, and mixed. Two formulated diets (starter & finisher) to which all the dietary additives were added in a dried powdered form and at the level of 0.75% expect for the mixed group as each additive was used at level 0.25% . Performance parameters including weekly body development, body weights gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio were recorded during the 35 -d experimental period. Also, representative samples from each replicate were gathered for the detection of carcass traits, consumer acceptability, and the gut morphometric changes. The data revealed that coriander, and turmeric significantly (p<0.05) increased the villus heights and crypt depths as compared to control which is concomitant with the improvement of performance results when incorporated solely in broilers diet at 0.75% level , but consumer acceptability was lowered specific ally for the turmeric –fed group .
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Introduction
The everlasting improvement on poultry genes seeking for great performance and more economical profit has resulted in dramatic changes in the bird's gut during growth (Tottori et al. 1997) rendering young birds to be highly vulnerable to enteric infection. It is logic that sustaining a healthy gut is a precondition golden role for efficient broilers performance. The use of antibiotic growth promoter (AGP) in poultry industry had been banned since 2006 in Europe as there is increased community awareness for their public health hazard for human being incriminated for the acquired resistance in zoonotic bacterial pathogens (Williams and Losa, 2001;Bostoglou et al. 2004). On view of that, a great burden has been facing nutritionist to surge for applicable alternatives maintaining birds gut health, performance as well as poultry enterprises profits. The properties of phytogenic feed additives (PFA) which are originally a plant derivative products have candidate them as safe and cost-efficient alternatives for AGP in livestock production (Windisch et al., 2008; Jacela et al. 2010). The mode of action of these feed additives to improve performance parameter is not completely clear but it includes enhancing feed intake, enzymatic digestion, feed conversion as well as body weight gain (Lovkova et al. 2001, Williams and Losa 2001, Ertas et al. 2005). Moreover, some of the PFA has biological activities including antimicrobial, antiviral, and antioxidant (Osawa et al.1995; Ertas et al. 2005; Cross etal.2007).
Coriander (Coriander sativum) is one plant of parsley family, natively cultivated in Mediterranean but found in many other parts of the world (Ertas et al., 2005).The dietary inclusion of coriander essential oil at the levels of 100, 200 and 300mg/kg induced growth performance improvement of broilers attributed to intestinal health enhancement (Ghazanfari et al.,2015). On the contrary, using coriander seeds oil at a level of 20 mg / kg diet had no effect on daily gain or feed conversion of broiler (Vogt and Rauch ,1991). Ali et al. (1992) observed significantly improved in body weight development of broiler chickens at the different weeks of the study and increased total weight gain due to the use of Bio- Tonic (dried extracts of several herbs included Coriandrum Sativum).Moreover, Saeid and AL-Nasry (2010) found that the broilers fed 0.3% coriander seed supplemented diet exhibited significant improvement in performance parameters as compared to the groups fed 0.2 and 0.1%. In quails' diets, coriander seeds exhibited a growth enhancement impact when included at a rate of 2% (Güler et al. 2005).
Turmeric (Curcuma longa) contains numerous active ingredients such as curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, bisdemethoxycurcumin, (Wuthi- Udomler et al. 2000) and tetrahydrocurcuminoids (Osawa et al. 1995). Dietary Inclusion of 5 g/kg turmeric meal in broilers diet induced significant improvement in productive performance (Al-Sultan 2003 & Durrani et al. 2006), similar results had been reported with the same level of a blend of turmeric and cumin (Al-Kassie et al. 2011). Even the dietary use of turmeric meal at the lower rate (1g/kg) enhanced the overall performance of broiler chickens (Kumari et al. 2007).
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) is a worldwide medicinal plant mostly used as a spice and its major components are the essential oil thymol and its isomer carvacrol (Mikaili et al., 2010). In a study of Toghyani et al. (2010) to compare between dietary supplementation of antibiotic vs. 5 g/kg thyme , a significant improvement in body weight gain was observed in broilers but FCR was the best in antibiotic treatment. Different inclusion rates of thyme essential oil in broilers diets had been reported to be of significant performance benefits , 100 and 200 mg/kg, and 200 or 300 mg/kg of carvacrol, thymol or their mixture, (Bölükbasi et al., 2006 & Abdel-Wareth, 2011), respectively. However, Cross et al. (2007) reported that dietary thyme had different effects on bird's weight gain and carcass traits when included in the bird's diets either as a dried herb or as an essential oil. Ocak et al. (2008) found no growth promoting effect of the dietary supplementation of 0.2% dried thyme as compared to control.
Keeping in view the significant importance of the aforementioned three phytogenic herbs (coriander, turmeric and thyme), the present study was conducted to evaluate the performance responses, guts healthiness, and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens fed on formulated diets included dried coriander, turmeric, and thyme at the level of 0.75% either solely or as mixture (0.25% each).
Conclusion
The inclusion of the dried powder of certain phytogenic feed additives namely the coriander or turmeric at the level of 0.75% of the broiler's diet has positive effects on various indices of performance, carcass traits and jejunal morphometric criteria of broiler chickens which empowers them for practical application at a commercial level.