چكيده لاتين :
اثرات ساقه و
برگ گياه مسواك
و برگ مورد
بر عملكرد و جمعيت باكتريايي روده كور جوجه
هاي گوشتي
7
1
Effect of Miswak
(Salvadora persica L.)
stem and leaf and Myrtle
(Myrtus
communis)
leaf on performance and cecal bacteria of broiler chicken
Kh
Shahbazi
Shoorbakhloo
1
, M Houshmand
2
* and R Naghiha
2
Received:
December 13, 2015
Accepted:
January
30
,
2017
1
MSc Student, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture,
Yasouj
University,
Yasouj, Iran
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Yasouj
University
,
Yasouj,
Iran
*
Corresponding
author:
hooshmand@yu.ac.ir
Introduction:
Because of beneficial consequences of herbal plants on the performance and intestinal
microlflora of broilers (Windisch et al. 2008),
they have been proposed as an organic alternative to
antibiotic growth promoters.
Miswak
(
Salvadora persica
) is a plant that grows around Mecca and in
the Middle East area in general. High levels of active compounds such as flavonoids, eugenol, sodium
chl
oride, potassium chloride, salvadourea, alkaloids and oleic and linoleic acids are present in
Miswak
. It has antibacterial, antioxidant and antifungal properties (Battaa et al. 2013). There is no
report on the influences of dietary supplementation of
Miswa
k
in broiler chickens. However, in a
previous study dietary supplementation with different levels of
Miswak
(0.50, 0.75 and 1.0
% diet)
improved performance as well as reproductive performance of Dokki
4
laying hens (Battaa et al.
2013). Common
Myrtle
(
Myrtu
s communis)
belongs to the Myrtaceae family. The genus
M
yrtus
includes flowering plant with approximately
sixteen
species reported in areas of the Middle East and
Asia. Myrtle is one of the important aromatic and medicinal species from this family. It is a
native
plant to southern Europe, North Africa and west Asia (
Nadkarni, 1989
). Different compounds such
as 1,8
-
cineole, linalool, linalyl acetate, terpineole, terpinolene, tannins and flavonoid are found in
dried leaves of
Myrtle
. However, antibacterial, a
ntifungal and antioxidant properties of this herb have
been reported
(
Garg and Denger, 1988
).
Mahmoudi Bardzardi et al. (2012) indicated that dietary
supplementation with 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg
diet of
Myrtle
extract improved body weight gain and
also feed
conversion ratio of broilers. In another stud
y
, it was shown that addition of
Myrtle
extract
reduced the adverse ef
fects of aflatoxin
-
contaminated
diets on broilers (Sadeghi et al. 2013).
On the
other hand,
Myrtle
extract can reduce the count of
E
.
coli
and increase the number of
Lactobacillus
in gut system of broilers (Ghazanfari et al. 2014).
The aim of the current study was to
investigate the
effects of
Miswak
stem and leaf powder and
Myrtle
leaf powder on the performance and cecal bacteria
of broiler
s.
Material and method
s
:
A total number of 408 one
-
day
-
old Cobb
-
500 chicks (male and female)
were obtained from local hatchery and transferred to the rearing place. In a completely randomized
design, birds were allocated to 6
experimental treatments with 4 replicate pens of 17 chicks each. The
control group was provided a basal diet without any feed additive, while supplemented groups were
received same basal diet which supplemented with one of the following feed additives: an
tibiotic (1g
Neomycin/Kg diet), 0.5% stem and leaf powder of
Miswak
, 1% stem and leaf powder of
Miswak
,
0.5%
Myrtle
leaf powder and mix of 0.5% stem and leaf powder of
Miswak
+ 0.5%
Myrtle
leaf
powder. All groups had free access to starter (d 1
-
21) and fin
isher (d 22
-
42) diets, throughout the
rearing period. Fresh steam and leaf of
Miswak
and leaf of
Myrtle
were collected from the range of
Larestan, Fars Province, Iran. They were dried in shadow, finely ground and added to the
experimental diets based on th
eir dosage. Body weight and feed intake were measured on 21 and 42
days of age. Moreover, at 21 and 42 days of age, one bird from each replicate pen (4/treatment) was
slaughtered and samples of cecal content were collected to determine the population of
E
coli
and
Lactoacillus
bacteria. Results and discussion:
The current findings indicated that feed intake was
not
significantly
influenced by dietary treatments (P> 0.05) throughout the study. Dietary addition of 0.5%
Myrtle
had
deleterious effects on body
weight gain and feed conversion ratio during starter phase of the study.
Thus, birds fed diet containing 0.5%
Myrtle
gained less body weight and worse feed conversion ratio
than those feed the control diet (P< 0.05). There were no significant differences i
n finisher (22
-
42 d)
or overall (1
-
42 d) feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio among experimental
treatments (P>0.05).
In line with these results, Al
-
Fadil et al. (2013) did not find positive effect of
Neomycin on broiler body weight. Bul
bul et al. (2014) reported that supplementation with 500, 1000
and 2000 mg/kg
Myrtle
oil did not influence broiler body weight gain while, 5000 mg/kg of this
additive decreased body weight gain. Inconsistency in their results and others was attributed
to the
source and levels of
Myrtle
oil. In contrast to our results, in a previous study (
Battaa et al. 2013
)
dietary supplementation with
Miswak
resulted in significant improvements in performance and
reproductive traits of
Dokki
4
laying hens
.
On day 21,
significant differences were observed in count
of
E.coli
and
Lactobacillus
bacteria among experimental treatments (P<0.05). Supplementation with
0.5 and 1%
Miswak
significantly increased the number of
Lactobacillus
compared to the control
group (P<0.05), w
hile birds fed with diet supplemented with 0.5 %
Myrtle
had lower number of
Lactobacillus
than the control group (P<0.05). Moreover, all additive groups (except for 0.5 %
Myrtle
) had higher population of
E coli
than the control group (P<0.05). At 42 days o
f age, the count
of
Lactobacillus
bacteria significantly was higher in 0.5%
Miswak
, 0.5%
Myrtle
and mix of 0.5%
Miswak
+ 0.5%
Myrtle
than the control (P<0.05). Also, feeding with diet supplemented with 1%
Miswak
significantly decreased the number of
E.coli
(P<0.05). Broilers response to feed additives is
influenced by various factors including type and dosage of additive, diet composition, dietary levels
of nutrients, genetic and bird of age, rearing condition and management (Alizadehsadrdaneshpour et
al. 2
010; Anderson et al. 1999; Bartov, 1992). Thus, the differences between our results and other
studies can be contributed to those factors.
Conclusion:
Under condition
of the current study, dietary addition of different feed additives
(antibiotic,
Miswak
and
Myrtle
) had no significant effect on broiler body weight gain, feed intake and
feed conversion ratio. Population of cecal
Lactobacillus
and
E coli
were significantly influenced by
the
feed additives
which used
in
the
current study
.
