TY - JOUR ID - 2970 TI - Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Intestinal Microflora of Broiler Chickens Fed Diets Containing Carum copticum Essential Oil JO - Poultry Science Journal JA - PSJ LA - en SN - 2345-6604 AU - Falaki, M AU - Shams Shargh, M AU - Dastar, B AU - Hashemi, SR AU - Sadeghi Mahoonak, AR AD - Department of Animal and Poultry Nutrition, Faculty of Animal Science, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran AD - Department of Animal and Poultry Physiology, Faculty of Animal Science, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran AD - Department of food Science, Faculty of Food Science, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran Y1 - 2016 PY - 2016 VL - 4 IS - 1 SP - 37 EP - 46 KW - Broiler KW - Carum copticum KW - Essential oil KW - Performance KW - Intestinal microflora DO - 10.22069/psj.2016.2970 N2 - 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. UR - https://psj.gau.ac.ir/article_2970.html L1 - https://psj.gau.ac.ir/article_2970_b8a2a2615f83a8f7d7207e182c7a868c.pdf ER -