Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXVI, Issue 1
Written by Petru Alexandru VLAICU, Tatiana Dumitra PANAITE, Mihaela DUMITRU, Arabela Elena UNTEA, Mihaela SĂRĂCILĂ
In this study alfalfa meal effects on production performances, efficiency factors, carcass part, organs development and intestinal microflora were tested. For that, 60 Cobb 500 broiler chickens were divided into two groups of 30 broilers/ group and fed a control or experimental diet in the grower and finisher phases. The birds were raised in an experimental room, with controlled microclimate conditions and fed a control diet (C) based on corn, soybean meal and wheat or an experimental diet containing 5% alfalfa meal (A). The production performances showed that the experimental group, containing 5% alfalfa had a significant effect (P<0.05) on feed conversion ratio. Viability rate was higher in the A group, which influenced the European Production Efficiency Factor and the European Broiler Index but without significant effect. At the end of the trial, six broilers from each group were slaughtered, the carcass part and the organs were measured and samples of intestinal and caecal content were collected for microbiological analyses. The thigh muscle, liver and gizzard were significantly (P<0.05) higher in the A group compared with the C group. The effect of alfalfa meal was very efficient in increasing the beneficial bacteria in the intestinal and caecal segment such as Lactobacilli spp., and significantly decreased the total count of harmful bacteria like Staphylococcus spp., Escherichia coli, Clostridium spp., Enterococcus spp., and Coliforms.
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