Amir Reza Rajabi
Islamic Azad University, Iran
Title: The effect of barberry and fumitory extracts on growth performance, liver enzyme and serum lipid profile in broiler chickens
Biography
Biography: Amir Reza Rajabi
Abstract
Given the hazards of using chemical drugs in various areas of broiler breeding including drug resistance, high cost and many other side effects, the need for herbal medicines has increased in all animal health issues. Barberry and fumitory with scientific name of Berberis vulgaris and Fumaria officinalis are phytogenic compounds. These plants have anti-bacterial and growth stimulator characteristics. Considering the widely use of phytogenic compounds as alternative to chemical drugs in human diet and livestock industry, this study tried to evaluate the impact of barberry and fumitory extracts on growth performance, serum lipid profile and liver enzymes. In this regard a number of 360 one-day-chicks of Ross 308 broilers were housed in equal conditions. They were classified in 3 groups with 3 replicates (40 chicks per group). The experimental groups were as follows: control group, received maize-soybean diet; barberry group, received maize-soybean diet + barberry extract and; fumitory group, received maize-soybean diet + fumitory extract. The studied traits included feed intake, weight variation, feed conversion ratio (FCR), serum lipid profile and liver enzymes. On 41th day, 20 chicks were selected randomly and their blood samples were obtained. The results showed that using barberry and fumitory as feed additives improve weight gain and FCR (p < 0.05) and exert positive effect on lipid profile and liver enzymes compared to the control (p < 0.05).