Effect of Anise (Pimpinella Anisum L.) and Angelica (Heracleum Persicum) on growth performance, protein efficiency ratio and energy efficiency ratio and biochemical parameters of broilers

In order to evaluate the effect of Anise and Angelica extracts as an alternative to antibiotics to stimulate growth, 400 male and female Ross 308 broiler chicks were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments and four replications at the age of 1-42 days. The control diet was based on corn-meal soybean with no additive, and four other treatments were prepared by adding 200 mg per kilogram of diet of Anise seed extract, Angelica seed extract, oxytetracycline antibiotic and 100 mg probiotic Primalac per kilogram of diet. On day 38, one chick was selected from each replicate and three mL of blood were collected from the wing vein in the test tube to examine the biochemical parameters. The highest (57.9 g) and lowest (52.6 g) average daily gains were observed in the birds fed with control and probiotic treatment, respectively (P<0.05). The daily feed intake of birds fed with Anise, Angelica extract, and probiotic treatments was lower than birds were fed with control (P<0.05), but there was no significant deference between antibiotic treatments with others treatments. The effect of experimental diets on feed conversion ratio was not significant. The highest and lowest carcasses without skin of broiler chicks were observed in the birds fed with control and antibiotic treatment, respectively (P<0.05). According to the results of this study, the use of Anise and Angelica extracts can be used as alternatives to antibiotics in broiler chickens diets.