Effects of microencapsulated ajowan essential oil on growth performance and intestinal microflora of broilers

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of different inclusion levels of free and microencapsulated essential oil of Ajowan (EOA) herb in broilers diet on growth performance and some ileal bacteria population. A total of 320 one-day-old chicks were distributed in a completely randomized design with 2×4 factorial arrangement. The dietary factors were 2 different forms of EOA (free and encapsulated) and 4 dietary inclusion levels of EOA (0, 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg). Growth performance parameters were recorded throughout the experiment, and intestinal organs weight and ileal microbial population were measured on 42 day of age. Broilers fed encapsulated EOA in diet had higher body weight gain and lower feed conversion ratio during 1 to 21 day of age than those fed free EOA (P<0.05). Higher relative weight of liver (% of live weight) was achieved in broilers fed diets supplemented with encapsulated EOA (P<0.05). There was a significant interaction between the form and dietary levels of EOA on E. coli count (P<0.05). As a general conclusion, use of encapsulated EOA led to an improvement in body weight gain, FCR, and European Production Index, in the first three weeks of growth and in the whole period of growth phase, respectively.