%0 Journal Article %T Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Intestinal Microflora of Broiler Chickens Fed Diets Containing Carum copticum Essential Oil %J Poultry Science Journal %I Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources %Z 2345-6604 %A Falaki, M %A Shams Shargh, M %A Dastar, B %A Hashemi, SR %A Sadeghi Mahoonak, AR %D 2016 %\ 06/01/2016 %V 4 %N 1 %P 37-46 %! Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Intestinal Microflora of Broiler Chickens Fed Diets Containing Carum copticum Essential Oil %K Broiler %K Carum copticum %K Essential oil %K Performance %K Intestinal microflora %R 10.22069/psj.2016.2970 %X We evaluated the effects of dietary Carum copticum essential oil (CCEO) on growth performance, carcass characteristics and intestinal microfloraof broiler chickens. A total of 240 Cobb broiler chickens were allocated to five dietary treatments, each with four replicates of 12 birds. Dietary treatments were prepared by formulating a corn-soybean meal-based diet free of antibiotics (Control) and supplementing the basal diet with three levels of CCEO at 150, 250, 350 mg/kg or antibiotic Virginiamycin at 200 mg/kg. Treatments were fed from 0 to 42 d of age. Body weight gain decreased linearly (p =0.035) with increasing CCEO while Virginiamycin increased body weight gain at 1 to 10 d compared to the control treatment (p < 0.05). Though feed consumption was not affected by CCEO, CCEO insignificantly improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) (p > 0.05). There were no differences in carcass characteristics among broiler chickens fed the control, CCEO and Virginiamycin diets (p > 0.05). Lactic acid bacteria in the cecum and ileum at 42 d of age were not influenced by the treatments (p > 0.05) but there was a linear increase of the log numbers of E. coli in the ileum (p =0.02) with increasing CCEO (p < 0.05). In conclusion, supplementing CCEO to diet at 150 mg/kg improve the growth performance, decrease undesirable intestinal bacteria in broiler chickens and is an adequate alternative to antibiotics. %U https://psj.gau.ac.ir/article_2970_b8a2a2615f83a8f7d7207e182c7a868c.pdf