Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LX
Written by Serhat AKYILDIZ, Nida OZCAN, Muzaffer DENLI
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of two herbal extracts (Emerald and Gundelia tournefortii L. Seed) on growth performance, serum biochemistry and intestinal bacterial population in broilers. A total of 280 Ross 308 1-dayold male broiler chicks were distributed into 5 groups of 7 in each consisting 8 replicates per treatment for 42 days. Five treatments were used; control group received basal diet (without any herbal extract supplementation), the Emerald at 100 mg/kg diet and G. tournefortii L. seed extracts (GTE) at 2, 4 and 8 g/kg diet were added to basal diet. The addition of 4 and 8 g GTE to the diet resulted in significantly higher body weight compared with control group (P0.05). In addition, serum uric acid (UA) and glucose (Glu) concentrations and aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities were not affected by any treatment (P>0.05). In conclusion, our results showed that different dietary levels of GTE may improve the growth performance by increasing intestinal lactic acid bacteria counts.
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