Effects of milk thistle powder on performance, blood parameters and liver enzymes of broilers

This research was conducted to study the effects of the milk thistle powder on growth performance, blood parameters and liver enzymes in the 360 male broiler chicks (Ross 308). The studied factors were milk thistle powder at 0, 0.3 and 3% levels and antibiotic Cotrimoxazole at 0 and 0.2% per kg diet, which was a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with 6 treatments and 3 replications. Growth performance traits, blood parameters and liver enzymes were measured at the end of the experimental period (42-day). The different levels of milk thistle powder caused a decrease in the mean of feed intake and body weight in the whole period (P