Elahe Rezaei; Saleh Tabatabaei Vakili; Khalil Mirzadeh; Somayeh Sallary; Mehdi Zarei
Volume 18, Issue 1 , April 2016, , Pages 151-160
Abstract
This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of different levels of anise seed on the performance, immune system, antioxidant activity and blood estrogen level of broiler chicks. A total of 192 day -old Ross 308 broilers were trained for 42 days in a completely randomized design with four treatments, ...
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This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of different levels of anise seed on the performance, immune system, antioxidant activity and blood estrogen level of broiler chicks. A total of 192 day -old Ross 308 broilers were trained for 42 days in a completely randomized design with four treatments, four replicates and 12 birds per each replicate. Treatments were included the levels of zero (control(, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 percent of anise seed in diet. SRBC was injected at day 28 and blood samples were collected from chickens at days 35 and 42 of rearing. Dietary anise supplementation had no positive effect on feed intake and weight gain of broilers. In starter period, the chicks fed by 0.3 percent of anise seed, had the least feed conversion ratio (P<0.05). However, anise seed levels had no positive effects on feed conversion ratio in grower and total rearing period. Anise seed caused the higher antibody titer against SRBC in day 35 of rearing (P<0.05). The cellular immunity did not improve by anise seed levels in broilers. The 0.3 percent of anise seed, caused the higher total antioxidant capacity of blood plasma than control chicks (P<0.05). The blood serum estrogen level was reduced in 0.3 and 0.6 percent, but increased in 0.9 percent of anise seed (P<0.05). Generally, however the anise seed dose not improves performance traits and cellular immunity of broilers, but increse the primary humeral immunity and total antioxidant capacity of chicken.