Evaluation of Miswak (Salvadora persica) as a Herbal Additive in Broiler Chickens

We determined the effects of dietary supplementation of different doses of Miswak (Salvadora persica) steam and leaf powder on the performance, blood parameters, cecal flora, and carcass traits of broilers. Four hundred and eight one-day old Ross 308 broiler chicks were provided one of the following experimental diets over 42 days: a basal diet without any additives, or a basal diet supplemented with 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, or 0.8% Miswak powder. Four replicates of 17 birds were allocated to each treatment. Neither broiler performance (body weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio) during starter (d 1-21), finisher (d 22-42), and the overall period (d 1-42) of the study, nor blood parameters (glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and very low density lipoprotein-cholesterol) were influenced by experimental treatments (P 0.05). Chicks fed diets containing 0.4% Miswak had higher (P 0.05) cecal Lactobacillus than the control group at day 42. Furthermore, 0.6% and 0.8% Miswak reduced the number of cecal E coli compared to the control diet (P 0.05). There were no significant differences in carcass yield and the relative weights of thigh, breast, and abdominal fat at day 42 (P 0.05). In conclusion, we found that supplementation with Miswak powder had no beneficial effects on performance and blood parameters of broilers, but could improve cecal bacteria counts at levels greater than 0.4%.