The effects of infused olive leaf offered with drinking water on growth performance, ileum histomorphologic characteristics, and some cecal microorganism counts of broiler chickens

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of infused olive leaves (IOL) in drinking water on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, ileal histomorphology, and cecal microorganisms of broiler chickens. A total of 210 day-old male broiler chicks were randomly divided into 5 treatment groups with 6 replicates and 7 chicks in each replicate. All chicks received a corn-soybean-based diet and drinking water with or without IOL ad libitum for 42 days. Treatments were drinking water without any additives (control group), drinking water including IOL of 5 m/L (IOL5), 10 m/L (IOL10), 15 ml/L (IOL15), and 20 ml/L (IOL20). The addition of IOL to drinking water did not affect the growth performance, water intake, carcass parameters, weights of inner organs, and digestive tract weight and length. The Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus spp. counts in the cecum were also not influenced by IOL supplementation in drinking water. However, chickens receiving IOL5, IOL10, or IOL15 had higher villus length in the ileum compared with birds in the control group. Crypt depth was lower in chickens from the IOL20 group compared with birds in the other treatment groups. In addition, broilers offered IOL15 or IOL20 had a higher villus length to crypt depth ratio in the ileum than chickens in the control group. However, treatments had no influence on the lamina muscularis mucosae layer of the ileum in broiler chickens. The results showed that drinking water including IOL at 15 and 20 ml/L improved ileal histomorphology without any detrimental effect on growth performance, carcass traits, and cecal microorganisms in broiler chickens.

Role of herbal products in animal production - An updated review

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Plants are used for health and medical functions since ancient times. Plants and their extracts are also well-known phytobiotics or phytogenics that are widely used in animal traditional and alternative medicine. In recent years the use of herbal/plant medicine is increased in livestock production due to the side effects of modern drugs, the high input costs, toxic residues in food, microbial resistance and due to the development of organic livestock production systems. Plants are used as health promoters and also for the treatment of diseases.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This review aims to provide information on various plants used in animal health care, production and reproduction in various forms.

METHODS

We carefully searched the scientific literature for data related to traditional scientific use of herbal products in animal production. This review summarized published literature collected from library, the online databases, and various scientific search engines including PubMed, Elsevier, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, and Research gate. The Plant List (www.theplantlist.org) databases were used to provide the scientific names, subspecies of plants.

RESULTS

Various herbs play important role in production and reproduction of animal. Herbs acts as feed additives, growth promoters, immune boosters, improves reproduction in animals and also helps in reduction of methane and ammonia emission. Secondary metabolites like Tanins, saponin, flavonoids and essential oils are the most used for rumen manipulation and have great potential in poultry and pig nutrition.

CONCLUSION

The traditional knowledge may play important role, hence documentation and preservation is a must before it is lost forever. Medicinal herbs are a potential source as therapeutics and nutritive aids and have a significant role in health system all over the world for both humans and animals.

Insights for the Valorization of Biomass from Portuguese Invasive Acacia spp. in a Biorefinery Perspective

Acacia spp. are widespread all over the Portuguese territory, representing a threat to local biodiversity and to the productivity of the forest sector. The measures adopted in some countries for their eradication or to control their propagation are expensive, have been considered unfeasible from practical and economical perspectives, and have generated large amounts of residue that must be valorized in a sustainable way. This review brings together information on the valorization of bark, wood, leaves, flowers, pods, seeds, roots, and exudates from Acacia spp., through the production of high-value bioactive extracts (e.g., antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antiviral, anthelmintic, or pesticidal agents, suitable to be explored by pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmetics, and food and feed industries), its incorporation in innovative materials (e.g., polymers and composites, nanomaterials, low-cost adsorbents), as well as through the application of advanced thermochemical processes (e.g., flash pyrolysis) and pre-treatments to decompose biomass in its structural components, regarding the production of biofuels along with valuable chemicals derived from cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The knowledge of this research is important to encourage an efficient and sustainable valorization of Acacia spp. within a biorefinery concept, which can bring a significant economic return from the valorization of these residues, simultaneously contributing to forest cleaning and management, to reduce the risk of fires, and to improve the social-economic development of rural areas.

Glycerol monolaurate improves performance, intestinal development, and muscle amino acids in yellow-feathered broilers via manipulating gut microbiota

Recent studies reveal that glycerol monolaurate (GML) is regarded as an effective feed supplement in the production of broilers; however, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. The current study aimed to investigate how GML affected production performance and meat quality in yellow-feathered broilers. A total of 528 chicks were randomly assigned into four groups for a 56-day feeding trial. The control group received a basal diet, and the treated groups fed basal diet containing 300 (GML300), 450 (GML450), and 600 (GML600) mg/kg GML. Results revealed that dietary GML notably increased the average daily feed intake (p < 0.05) and body weight in broilers during 28-56 days of age and improved the duodenum and jejunum morphology. Dietary GML increased the total cholesterol in broilers (p < 0.05), but the hepatic, abdominal, and muscular fat deposition, as well as muscle fatty acids, were not affected. The flavor amino acids and total amino acids in muscle of GML300 and GML 450 groups were notably (p < 0.05) increased. GML supplementation selectively increased the colonization of an unclassified genus of Lachnospiraceae family and Bifidobacteriaceae, which were significantly (p < 0.05) correlated with the increase of muscle amino acids. Meanwhile, dietary GML notably increased short chain fatty acids content and the microbial DNA abundance of carbohydrate, amino acids and lipid metabolism pathway in cecum. These findings demonstrated that dietary GML improved performance, intestinal morphology, and muscle amino acids in broilers mainly by manipulating community, function and metabolites of gut microbiota. KEY POINTS: • GML improves performance, muscle composition, and feed efficiency in broilers. • GML alters gut microbiota community, function, and microbial metabolites in broilers. • Improvements of broilers by GML closely associated with gut microbiota alteration. Graphical abstract.

Bamboo leaf flavone changed the community of cecum microbiota and improved the immune function in broilers

It has been shown that bamboo leaf flavone (BLF) displays biological and pharmacological activities in mammals. However, the effects of BLF on broiler gut microbiota and related immune function have not been investigated. The aim of this study was to test our hypothesis that BLF can improve the health status of broilers by modulating the gut microbiota. A total of 300 one-day-old Arbor Acres (AA) broilers were used to characterize their gut microbiota and immune status after feeding diet supplemented with BLF. The V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene from cecal bacteria was sequenced via the Illumina MiSeq platform. The Immune status and related parameters were assessed, including the immune organ index (the spleen, thymus, and bursa), serum concentrations of IL-2 and INF-γ, and spleen IL-2 and INF-γ gene expressions. The results showed the BLF diet had an Immune enhancement effect on broilers. In addition, BFL caused the changes of the gut microbial community structure, resulting in greater proportions of bacterial taxa belonging to Lactobacillus, Clostridiales, Ruminococcus, and Lachnospiraceae. These bacteria have been used as probiotics for producing short chain fatty acids in hosts. These results indicate that BLF supplement improves immune function in chicken via modulation of the gut microbiota.

Influence of cardamom essential oils and seeds on growth performance, blood characteristics and immunity of broilers

This study was conducted to investigate the impact of dietary supplementation of cardamom essential oils (CEO) and powdered cardamom seeds (PCS) on the growth performance, plasma biochemistry, haematological characters, immune response and meat acceptability in broilers. In total, 300 day-old male broilers (Ross 308) were allocated to five treatments with six replicates. Dietary treatments included the basal diet as control, CEO-supplemented diets with an inclusion level of 50 (CEO1) or 100 (CEO2) mg/kg, and PCS-supplemented diets with an inclusion level of 3 (PCS1) or 6 (PCS2) g/kg. Feeding PCS1 diet improved (P < 0.05) bodyweight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of broilers during the grower period (11–28 days). Moreover, broilers fed the CEO2 diet had the lowest (P < 0.05) FCR during the whole growth period (0–42 days). Higher bursa index (P < 0.05) was detected in chickens receiving CEO1 and CEO2 diets; additionally, higher spleen index (P < 0.05) was recorded in the CEO1 group at 42 days of age. Haematological parameters including red blood cell, white blood cell, haemoglobin, haematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration values were not influenced (P > 0.05) by diet. By contrast, CEO1 and CEO2 diets decreased (P < 0.05) the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) concentrations compared with control diet. Plasma cholesterol level was also lower (P < 0.05) in the CEO1 group at 42 days of age. Sensory evaluation of meat samples indicated no differences (P > 0.05) among treatments for appearance, flavour, texture and overall acceptability. Our results suggest that the CEO2 diet was advantageous compared with control diet with respect to feed efficiency. Moreover, CEO1 had a positive effect on the blood cholesterol profile by decreasing the plasma cholesterol and LDL-C levels.