Meisam Tamizi Jooneghani; Shokoufe Ghazanfari; Alireza Aghashahi; Seyed Davood Sharifi; Seyyed Abdollah Hosseini
Volume 18, Issue 3 , October 2016, , Pages 501-512
Abstract
This study was carried out to investigate the effects of Humulus lupulus essential oils as an alternative to antibiotic and antioxidant on productive performance, lipids stability of meat and ileum microbial population in broiler chickens during days 1 to 42 of age. A total of 625 day-old Arian broiler ...
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This study was carried out to investigate the effects of Humulus lupulus essential oils as an alternative to antibiotic and antioxidant on productive performance, lipids stability of meat and ileum microbial population in broiler chickens during days 1 to 42 of age. A total of 625 day-old Arian broiler chicks were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments (200 and 400 mg/kg Humulus lupulusessential oils, 100 mg/kg antibiotic avilamycin, 150 mg/kg protexin probiotic and control) and five replicates of 25 birds each. Broilers that were fed dietary Humulus lupulus oil at level of 400 mg/kg and antibiotic revealed higher feed intake than broilers fed dietary Humulus lupulusoil at level of 200 mg/kg (P<0.05). Dietary Humulus lupulus oil at level of 200 mg/kg and probiotic had best production index compared with Humulus lupulus oil at level of 400 mg/kg treatment (P<0.05). The Humulus lupulus oils (200 and 400 mg/kg) treatments showed lower thigh muscles malondialdehyde concentration compared with antibiotic and probiotic treatments as well as control group (P<0.01). Broilers were fed dietary 400 mg/kg Humulus lupulus oil had highest lactobacillus count of the ileum compared with other treatments (P<0.05). Dietary Humulus lupulus oil at level of 200 mg/kg improved broiler productive performance, however improvement of ileum microbial population and meat quality were observed when 400 mg/kg dietary Humulus lupulus oil was applied.