zahra nooreh; kamran Taherpour; Mohammad Akbari Gharaei; Hassan Shizadi; Hossein Ali Ghasemi
Volume 21, Issue 3 , September 2019, , Pages 381-392
Abstract
The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of hydroalcoholic extract of Ferulago angulata (FA) as a substitute for common feed additive on performance and blood biochemical and hematological parameters of Ross 308 broilers. A total of 450 one-day-old male broiler chickens were ...
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The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of hydroalcoholic extract of Ferulago angulata (FA) as a substitute for common feed additive on performance and blood biochemical and hematological parameters of Ross 308 broilers. A total of 450 one-day-old male broiler chickens were used in a completely randomized design with six treatments and five replicates per treatment. The experimental treatments consisted of the basal diet with no additives (control); the basal diet containing Salinomycine antibiotic (500 mg/kg); Primalak® probiotic (recommended level), vitamin and mineral mixture (200 mg/kg of E and C vitamins and 0.3 mg/kg of selenium) and hydroalcoholic extract of FA at the levels of 200 and 400 mg/kg. During the entire experimental period, the birds fed diets with additives had better body weight gain and feed conversion ratio compared with the control birds (P<0.05). Feeding broiler chickens with experimental diets, except for the diet containing antibiotic, resulted in decreased concentrations of serum triglyceride and cholesterol compared with the control diet (P<0.05). The heterophil percentage and the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio decreased in the birds fed diets with evaluated additives, except for treatment containing 200 mg/kg of FA extract (P<0.05). Based on the results of this study, the FA extract, especially at the level of 400 mg/kg of diet, could be used as a suitable substitute for commercial dietary feed additives to improve growth performance and blood hematological and biochemical parameters of broilers.