Effect of diet supplementation with Thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) on growth performance, immune and blood metabolites of broiler chickens fed wheat-based diets

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

2 Department of Animal Science, Khorasan Razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Mashhad, Iran,

Abstract

The current study was conducted to evaluate the effect of feed supplementation with Thyme-dried leaves (TDL) on growth performance, serum parameters, humoral immunity, and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) relative weight of broiler chickens fed on wheat-based diets with low nutrients density. One hundred and sixty day old meal “Ross 308” broiler chicks were arranged in a random completely design (CRD) with 4 treatments (zero, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.2% dietary supplemented with TDL), 4 replicates/treatment and 10 chicks per replicate. Compared with the control group, birds fed diets containing 0.4% TDL had a higher (P<0.05) final body weight, average daily gain and lower (P<0.05) feed conversion ratio at 1-18d but at other rearing period 19-30, 31-49 and 1-49d of ages had not significant difference. Dietary supplementation with TDL in the 0.8 and 1.2% levels decreased (P<0.05) small intestine relative weight (P<0.05) and in the 0.8% level increased (P<0.05) serum triglyceride and total cholesterol concentrations at 49d of age. Dietary supplementation with TDL didn’t show significant immune response to the SRBC injection on 18 and 25d of ages. It was concluded from the current experiment that Thyme-dried leaves can be used as a grow promoter in the wheat-based diet only in the starter period (1-18d of ages) of broiler chickens.

Keywords

References

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Animal Sciences Journal
Volume 30, Issue 116
December 2017
Pages 41-54

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