The effect of lemon grape and apple pulps on performance, carcass traits, digestive tract characteristic, intestinal morphology and immune status of broilers

Introduction Iran has good condition in fruit production among all countries in the world. Lemon, grape and apple are fruits that are produced in large scale in our country. For economical use of these fruits, there are different factories which produce fruit juices. Pulps are the main waste that remain after juicing fruits. Pulps contain some nutrients such as vitamins and minerals and secondary substances, also in contrast to common diets ingredients, there are very cheap and using them in diets may reduce the production price. As pulps contain high level of fiber, can be easily used without any adverse effects in ruminant, but in poultry, especially in broilers using higher level of pulps may be not possible. However, using low level of pulps do not have any adverse effects on performance and blood parameters and can improve the meat quality and blood biochemical and immune parameters. Moreover discharge of these wastes to environment can cause serious environmental problems. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of lemon, grape and apple pulps on performance, carcass traits, digestive tract characteristic, intestinal morphology and immune status of broilers.
Materials and Methods In this experiment 240 Ross-308 broilers were used in 5 treatments, 4 replicates and 12 chicks in each replicate in a completely randomized design. Experimental groups included: 1) control group (without using pulp), 2) group with 150 mg/kg vitamin E (as positive control group), 3) group with 3% lemon pulp, 4) group with 3% grape pulp, 5) group with 3% apple pulp. Grower diets from 11 to 24 days and finisher diets from 25 to 42 days were used by broilers. In the experimental periods all chickens in experimental groups had free accsess to feed and water. The lighting program included: 23 h light and 1 h darkness in all the experimental period.Feed intake and weight gain were measured at the end of growing and finishing and whole periods. Feed conversion ratio was measured by dividing the amount of feed intake to the amount of weight gain. Carcass quality traits, digestive tract characteristic, intestinal morphology and immune condition of broilers were measured at the end of experimental period.
Results and Discussion Grape and apple pulps significantly improved the feed conversion ratio (P0.05). The main reasons for these results may be related to the amount of vitamin E in the diet, the mixing condition of feed, diet preserving time and thermal condition during preserving and using diet, and the amount of fat in diet. Using lemon, grape and apple pulps in contrast to vitamin E and control groups, caused the percentages of carcass and breast meat increase and the percentages of gizzard and liver decrease (P