Browsing by Subject "Health and immunity"

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    Comparison of effects of Echinacea purpurea juices and Nigella sativa seeds on performance, some blood parameters, carcass and meat quality of broilers
    (2009) Nasir, Zahid; Grashorn, Michael
    Use of phytogenic substances in animal production is increasing due to their beneficial effects on feed digestion, promotion of production performance and improving product quality. They contain a number of pharmacologically active substances which have shown their activities in different body systems and, therefore, they are considered as one viable alternative to in-feed antibiotics. Presence of a variety of active ingredients indicates that phytogenic substances may have affects on different metabolic pathways, activity of different enzyme systems, immunity and performance parameters. Especially, improvement of immunity may help birds to cope in a better way with stress situations during fattening and by this may enhance well-being as well as quality of products of animal origin. Echinacea purpurea (EP) and Nigella sativa (NS) belong to the group of phytogenic substances that have been reported to stimulate immune system in laboratory trials as well as in human studies. Positive effects of EP and NS have been observed in a number of in vitro and in vivo experiments, which show that their application in poultry can be beneficial for maintaining health, improving immunity and performance parameters. However, no study was conducted to evaluate the comparative as well as synergistic effects of EP juices and NS seeds on broiler health, performance and activities of different enzymes related to heart and liver functions. The objectives of this thesis were set to investigate the effects of EP juices and grounded NS seeds on performance, metabolism (serum protein, blood picture and some liver and heart associated enzymes in blood), carcass and meat quality in broilers (Ross 308). For this purpose five preliminary trials were performed to investigate the effects on bird?s metabolism. Fattening trial was carried out to study the comparative and synergistic effects of EP juice and NS seeds on performance, carcass and meat quality. Three preliminary experiments were performed using two different preparations of EP juices; EP-F (EP fermented juice) and EP-A (EP juice on alcohol basis). Initially, effects of EP-F and EP-A were compared along with testing different dose levels. EP juices were orally supplemented intermittently for a 3 days (1-3, 13-15 and 25-27), followed by 9 days without EP application. Comparing the effects of EP-F and EP-A, better performance and improved health was observed by application of EP-F juices. Application of 0.25 ml/kg BW0.75 EP-F juice has shown more positive effects as compared to other treatment levels. EP-F treated birds showed significantly better average daily weight gain and significant improvement of serum globulins, indicating beneficial treatment effect on broiler performance as well as immunity. Levels of serum CK were significantly reduced in EP-F treated birds as compared to control, which shows that EP-F posses the potential to reduce incidence of mortality related to dysfunction of the cardio-vascular system in broilers. Two preliminary experiments were performed using grounded NS seeds. In first experiment different levels (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 %) of NS seeds were supplemented in basal broiler diets. 1 % NS was found to be most suitable, which was used in second experiment against a negative control. Numerically better FCR during starter phase was obtained by application of 1 % NS seeds, but these effects were decreased during grower phase. Less number of mortalities was observed in NS treated birds as compared to control. In the fattening trial, four treatment combinations were tested as: control (without any feed or water additive), E (drinking water intermittently supplemented with EP-F), N (feed supplemented with NS seeds) and EN (drinking water intermittently supplemented with EP-F and feed supplemented with NS). The results showed that application of EP-F as well as NS has no negative effect on broiler performance, carcass and meat quality. Birds performed to their maximum potential and supplementation of EP-F and NS helped birds to perform better. Combined application of EP and NS resulted in reduced mortality and numerical improvement in weight gain and feed consumption, significantly (P<0.05) higher meat CP as compared to E and N treatments. In general, a synergistic positive effect of simultaneous application of EP and NS was observed on performance, carcass and meat quality in broilers. Based on these results, it can be concluded that intermittent application of EP-F and continuous application of NS seeds has no negative effect on broiler performance, carcass and meat quality. Beneficial effects of Echinacea supplementation on broiler performance, health and immunity can be obtained by intermittent application of EP-F through drinking water. Combined application of EP-F and NS seeds has shown a trend of improved broiler performance and meat quality, which indicate synergistic effects of active ingredients of both phytogenic compounds.