Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LVIII
Written by Babak DARABIGHANE, Ali MAHDAVI, Eleni KASAPIDOU
Given the currently increased focus of researchers on applications of medicinal herbs as a natural additives to animal and poultry feed for enhanced performance of the immune system, the present study aims to examine effects of peppermint, Aloe vera, and Vitamin E on immune response in broilers. In this experiment, three hundred one-day old male broilers (Ross 308) were used on a completely randomized design in 4 groups with 5 replicates, each consisting of 15 broilers. The experimental groups included the control group (basal diet with no additive), a group that received 10 g/kg dry peppermint leaves (added to basal diet), a group given 10 g/kg Aloe vera gel (added to basal diet), and a group treated with 100 mg/kg Vitamin E. Evaluation of antibody titer against Newcastle disease virus indicated that on day 27, the highest level of antibody titer was observed in the Vitamin E group, showing a significant difference from other groups (P<0.05) except for the group that received the dry peppermint leaves. On day 37, the highest level of antibody titer against Newcastle disease virus was found in the Vitamin E group with a significant difference compared to the herb groups (the groups that received dry peppermint leaves and Aloe vera gel) as well as the control group (P<0.05). On the other hand, on days 27 and 37, the groups that received dry peppermint leaves and Aloe vera gel showed significant increase in their antibody titer against Newcastle disease virus compared to the control group (P<0.05). The results after injection of phytohemagglutinin-P on day 40 demonstrated that broilers in the Aloe vera gel group and those belonging to the dry peppermint leaves group significantly enhanced their response to phytohemagglutinin-P solution compared to the control group and to the broilers that were given Vitamin E (P<0.05). On day 42, a significant increase was observed in total white blood cell counts of broilers in the Aloe vera gel group and the dry peppermint leaves group compared to the control broilers, although the largest number of white blood cell was found in the broilers that received Vitamin E (p<0.05). In general, our results showed that supplementation of broiler feed with either dry peppermint leaves or Aloe vera gel enhances immune response.
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Aloe vera
