Effects of Dietary Inclusion of Raw or Treated Iranian Oak Acorn (Quercus brantii Lindl.) on the Performance and Cecal Bacteria of Broilers

The effects of raw or sodium hydrogen carbonate-treated oak acorn was evaluated on broiler chicken performance and cecal flora. A total of 340 one-day-old male and female broiler chicks were used in a completely random design with five experimental treatments and four replicates with 17 birds each. A corn-based diet served as the control and four treatment groups were diets containing 20 or 25% raw or treated oak acorn. Ground oak acorn was treated with 0.67 M sodium hydrogen carbonate solution at 820 mL/kg of oak acorn dry matter and incubated for 12 hrs at 37°C. Isocaloric and isonitrogenous starter and finisher diets were given to chicks from 1 to 21 and 22 to 42 d of age, respectively. Treatment significantly reduced the amount of total phenols and tannins in the feed (p