The Effects of Ferula assa-foetida Gum Powder, Probiotic and Antibiotic on Broiler Performance and Meat Quality

in order to digestion, absorption and transfer of nutrition to the body cells, sometime in addition to optimal and balanced nutrient compression, some feed additives are used in diet. Non edible feed additive are include a group of different compounds that can improve the production efficiency and maintain bird health (windisch et al, 2008). In recent years, interest in use medicinal plants as feed additive to replace antibiotic growth promotor has increased. The plant additive through effect on the micro flora of the gastro intestinal tract and the control pathogens improved growth. Components of essential oil have shown biological properties such as antioxidant and antimicrobial activity (windisch et al., 2008). Ferula assa-foetida is species rich in cumarin, especially sesquie terpen cumarin. Some biological studies have shown the antimicrobial activity and the antioxidant properties of the active ingredient in the plant. The mechanism action these compound is probably due the effect on the intestinal microbial population.(Dehpour et al.,2009). In this study, effect of Ferula assa-foetida gum powder, probiotic and antibiotic on performance and meat quality in broiler chicks were investigated.

In this research 288 broiler chicks were tested in completely randomized design with 6 treatment and 4 replicate per treatment from 1 to 42 days. In each experimental unit 12 chicks were reared in the same environmental condition. Six experimental diets (treatments) were included: the basal diet without additives, basal diet containing 100 mg per kg of antibiotic, basal diet containing 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 percent of Ferula assa-foetida gum powder and basal diet containing 100ppm probiotic Basylakt. Body weight and feed intake were measured weekly and mortality was recorded daily and then used to calculate the performance parameters. At the end of experiment (42 days), one bird from each replicate was killed to determine the concentration of malonedialdehyde (MAD), pH, water holding capacity, dripping loss and cooking loss in thigh meat. On day 21 and 35, two birds of each replicate 0.1 ml SRBC ( sheep red blood cell) suspension injected in breast muscles. Six days after each injection of red blood cells (days 27 and 41), about one ml of blood was taken from the same birds through the vein. Microtiter hemagglutination method was used to determine the antibody produced against RBC of sheep. Data from the experiment were analyzed in a completely randomized design by SAS software and comparison means were performed with using of Duncan’s multiple range tests at 5% level.

The results showed that chicks fed with probiotic had higher daily weight gain and lower feed conversion ratio in total growth period. Howevert there was no significant different with treatment antibiotic and 0.2 percent Ferula assa-foetida Gum Powder. In this experiment, feed intake and titer antibody against sheep red blood cells were not affected by any of the experimental treatments. Hoshmand moshaki et al (2013) Reported that adding 0.15% Ferula assa-foetida Gum Powder in the diet broiler chicks increased the body weight gain and improve feed intake and feed conversion ratio than the control group. Also Hosseini et al (2013) reported that use of thyme, probiotic and avilamycine in the diet broiler chicks did not any significant effect on antibody titer against SRBC in experimental treatments. In this experiment, chicks fed with different levels Ferula assa-foetida Gum Powder had lower TBA than the control and antibiotic groups. pH was not affected by experimental treatment. The highest water holding capacity (WHC) was observed in treatment fed with 0.2 percent Ferula assa-foetida Gum Powder that had significant different in compare to the control group. Dripping loss and cooking loss were decreased in treatment receiving 0.2 percent Ferula assa-foetida Gum Powder compared with control group. Poultry meat is particularly prone to oxidative deterioration due to its high concentration of poly unsaturated fatty acid (Luna et al, 2010). In experiment Elias Hossain (2013) treatment fed with avylamycine and different level green tea ( 0.5, 0.1, 0.2), pH , water hold capacity and dripping loss was not affected by experimental treatments, but cooking loss in treatment with 0.2 percent green tea was lower the other groups.

In this study use of 0.2 percent Ferula assa-foetida Gum Powder and probiotic basylakt (100 ppm) in diet, improved performance and meat quality in the broiler chicks, thus they can be considered as possible antibiotic alternatives.