Full Length Research Paper

Herbal additives and organic acids as antibiotic alternatives in broiler chickens diet for organic production

Ali Asghar Saki*¹, Reza Nasseri Harcini¹, Enayat Rahmatnejad² and Jalal Salary¹

¹Animal Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Bu-Ali Sina University of Hamedan, Hamedan, IR, Iran.

²Young Researchers Club, Hamedan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Hamedan, Iran.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: dralisaki@yahoo.com. Tel: 0098-9183139775. Fax: 00988114424012.

Accepted 15 September, 2011

   Abstract

This experiment was conducted to compare the influence of antibiotic, organic acids and herbal additives on broiler chickens. Treatments included: (1) basal diet (2) mixture of organic acids (3) shallot (4) yarrow (5) mixture of shallot and yarrow and (6) antibiotic. Significantly, increased feed intake (FI) was found by all treatments as compared to the control group. Significant higher body weight gain (BWG) and better feed conversion ratio (FCR) were observed by shallot, shallot and yarrow mixture and antibiotic treatments than other treatments. Breast and tight yields of control and organic acids treatments were significantly increased than other treatments at day 21. Significantly longer intestine was also shown by shallot and yarrow treatments as compared to the control group at day 42. Height and width of villus and crypt depth of bird fed with shallot diet were significantly greater than others at day 21, and these followed similar pattern at day 42. Significant increase in lactic acid bacteria counts in ileum and cecum of broiler chicken was shown by all treatments as compared to the control at day 21. In comparison to the control, all treatments significantly decreased Enterobacteriaceae counts in ileum and cecum of broiler chicken at 21 and 42 days of age. Moreover, protein, DNA and RNA contents were not affected by all treatments.

Key words: Broiler, antibiotic, organic acid, herbal.