Abstract

The performance of hybrid chickens fed plant–protein diets was compared to those fed diets supplemented with Ziziphus, Jatropha, white berry, black berry and pomegranate leaves extracted meal at level of (0.5 g/kg) or Vit. E. Two hundred and forty, 2 weeks-old unsexed Arbor acres chicks were used. A total number of 30 chicks were allocated for each treatment, divided into 3 replicates (10 birds/each) and housed in broiler cages. The chicks were fed the experimental grower diets from 2 to 6 weeks of age during summer season. All chicks were managed in similar fashion and had free access to feed and water throughout grower period. Measurements include were growth performance, carcass quality, digestibility and some plasma constituents.

Results obtained showed that: growth performance criteria were positively (P ≤ 0.05) affected by dietary supplementation with Ziziphus, Jatropha, white berry, black berry and pomegranate leaves extracted meal in the diet during the whole growing period. Digestible coefficients of CP, EE, NFE and ash retention were increased significantly (p ≤ 0.05) by dietary additions. Broilers fed the herb leaves extract-supplemented diet had significantly higher HDL, SOD, urea, ALT and creatinine levels than positive or negative control. This indicates better liver function as also appears from the normal architecture with a normal size central vein (CV) and several homogenous masses of liver cords with normal hepatocytes (h) and few fatty cirrhotic areas (f). It can be concluded that phytogenic extracted meals have a beneficial effect on growth performance and liver histology especially in summer season.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.