benzoic acid and essential oil compounds on broilers performance and health
Effects of a combination of benzoic acid and essential oil compounds on broilers performance and health
Published: September 18, 2012
By: Patricia Cruz Aristimunha; Lenise Schröder Boemo; Alexandre Pires Rosa (Poultry Science Laboratory – LAVIC – The Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil); Dino Garcez; Rafael Gustavo Hermes (DSM Nutritional Products, São Paulo, Brazil); Maurício Portela dos Santos (Poultry Science Laboratory – LAVIC – The Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil)
Summary
The objective of this study was to evaluate the addition of Crina Poultry Plus®, in broilers diets, based on corn and soybean meal, as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. 1550 one-day old Cobb 500 males were used in a randomly assigned in 5 treatments with 10 replicate pens of 31 birds each. Treatments were: diet without growth promoters, a negative control (NC); with 10ppm of avilamycin (AGP); with 300 ppm of Crina Poultry Plus® from 1-42 days (CPP); AGP from 1–21 and CPP from 22-42d (AGP/CPP) and a diet with AGP and CPP from 1-42d (AGP&CPP). The diets had the same nutrient levels. Data were submitted to ANOVA and Tukey’s test. The CPP diet increased (P<0.001) the body weight on 42d (2560.79g) compared to birds of NC (2426.07g) and AGP (2481.72g). The feed conversion rate and European productive efficiency index were better in CPP (1.83; 321.6), AGP/CPP (1.86; 307.1) and AGP&CPP (1.88; 306.8) than NC group (1.94 and 286.4) from 1-42d, but didn’t present significant differences compared to AGP (1.86 and 306.5). The NC group showed lower gut length (P=0.022) than AGP and AGP&CPP. The lesions scores by E. acervulina was highest in the NC (P=0.005) and other groups didn’t show significant differences. For E. maxima and E. tenella, no significant differences were found. The results suggest that the product can be used as an alternative to the antibiotic growth promoters.
KEYWORDS: alternative growth promoters, poultry, organic acid, plant extracts
INTRODUCTION
According World Health Organization (2000) antimicrobial growth promoter is antimicrobial agent used for the purpose of increasing daily weight gain or feed efficiency (feed-weight gain ratio) of food-producing animals. But the growing concern over the transmission and the proliferation of resistant bacteria via the food chain has led to a complete ban of the feed use of antibiotic growth promoters in livestock by the European Union since 2006 (Brenes and Roura, 2010).
This regulation has forced the countries that are interested to export animal products to search for alternatives to ensure the animals growth without affecting the quality of the final product. In this context, phytogenic feed additives are discussed possibly to add to the set of nonantibiotic growth promoters, such as organic acids which is already well established in animal nutrition.
The product Crina Poultry Plus® is a blend of essential oil compounds (including thymol, eugenol and piperine) and benzoic acid. The objective of this study was to evaluate the addition of Crina Poultry Plus® in diets based on corn and soybean meal for broilers and its action as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study was conducted at the Poultry Science Laboratory – LAVIC – Department of Animal Science at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. It was used 1550 one-day old male broiler chicks Cobb 500, from LAVIC’s hatchery, with weight variation less than 2.5%. Water and diets were provided ad libitum throughout the experiment and it was divided into three phases: Initial Phase (1-21 days), Growth Phase (22 to 35 days) and Final Phase (36 to 42 days of age).
Birds were distributed in five experimental groups with similar body weight. Each of the five experimental groups was randomly assigned to ten pen replicates with 31 birds per pen. The experimental diets were: a basal diet without growth promoters, a negative control (NC); a basal diet with 10 ppm of avilamycin (AGP); a basal diet with 300 ppm of Crina Poultry Plus® from 1-42 days (CPP), a basal diet a diet with 10 ppm AGP from 1 – 21 days and 300 ppm of CPP from 22-42d (AGP/CPP) and a basal diet with 10 ppm AGP and 300 ppm of CPP from 1-42d (AGP & CPP).
The body weight (BW) was evaluated in 1, 21, 35 and 42 days of age. The feed conversion rate (FCR) was evaluated in each phase (1-21, 22-35, 36-42 and 1-42 days) and the European productive efficiency index (EPEI) was calculated using the formula (BWG * VC) / (FCR * 10). At 21 days old, three birds per replicate were euthanized to evaluate the presence and scores of eimeria’s lesions (Eimeria acervulina, Eimeria maxima and Eimeria tenella). Also it was measured the gut length.
All data were subject to Analysis of Variance, where significant differences occurred, at 5% level of significance, it was applied the test of average comparison of Tukey. Procedures were performed using the SAS software (2000).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
At 42 days, the NC group had worse (P<0.001) BW than AGP, AGP/CPP and AGP&CPP. The CPP diet increased the BW compared to NC and AGP birds. Diet supplemented with Crina Poultry Plus® and/or avilamycin improved the FCR (P<0.001) when compared to NC diet for the 1-42 days trial (Table 1).
The supplementation with Crina Poultry Plus® and/or avilamycin improved the EPEI (P<0.001) when compared to NC diet (Table 1). In the gut length NC group showed lower result (P=0.022) than AGP and AGP&CPP (Table 1), however the Crina Poultry Plus® individually didn’t influenced the gut length in relation of the control group. The positive results in the growth performance with the supplementation with Crina Poultry Plus agree with the results of Jang et al. (2004) and Vieira et al. (2008) and disagree with results of Lee et al. (2003) and Jang et al. (2007), that conducted studies with essential oils (including Crina Poultry®) and organic acids supplementation in broiler’s diets.
The increase of growth performance of broilers by Crina Poultry Plus® could be explained by the properties of organic acids and essential oils (EO). According Ertas et al. (2005) the EOs has biological activities such as that of antioxidants, as hypocholesterolemics, stimulate effect on animal digestive systems, increase production of digestive enzymes and improve utilization of digestive products through enhanced liver functions. EOs also stimulate blood circulation, reduce levels of pathogenic bacteria and may enhance immune status (Brenes and Roura, 2010)
Organic acids have strong antimicrobial activities, it seems appropriate that their positive influence on digestion may be related to indirect effects on gastrointestinal microbes. They can influence mucosal morphology, as well as stimulate pancreatic secretions and serve as substrates in the intermediary metabolism. This multifunctional role of organic acids may lead to the improved digestion, absorption and retention of numerous dietary nutrients (Partanen and Mroz, 1999).
The lesion scores by E. acervulina was highest in the NC (P=0.005) and other groups didn’t show significant differences between them. For E. maxima and E. tenella, no significant differences were found (Table 1). Previous studies conducted by Oviedo-Rondón et al. (2006) have found that the use of the EOs (Crina Poultry® and Crina Alternate®) in broiler diets significantly reduced the eimerias lesion scores in duodenum (which agrees with the results found in this study) and cecum in cocci-vaccinated and non-cocci-vaccineted birds, but this effect was not significant in lesions observed in jejunum-ileum. Oviedo-Rondón et al. (2005), studied the responses of coccidia-vaccinated broilers to EOs, using dietary supplementation of 2 specific EO blends (Crina Poultry® and Crina Alternate®), and, disagreeing with this study, found that lesion scores were not affected by treatments at 37 d.
Table 1. Effect of the treatments on growth performance, gut length and lesion scores of eimerias in the experimental period1
CONCLUSION
Crina Poultry Plus® increased growth performance and decreases the broilers lesion scores of E. acervulina compared to control group. Moreover the diet where was included only this additive showed better results in body weight than antibiotic growth promoter diet. These results suggest that Crina Poultry Plus® can be used as an alternative product to antibiotic growth promoters in broilers diets.
REFERENCES
Brenes, A., Roura, E. (2010) Essential oils in poultry nutrition: main effects and modes of action. Animal Feed Science and Technology 158: 1-14.
Ertas, O.N., Güler, T., Çiftçi1, M., Dalkiliç, B. and Simsek, Ü.G. (2005) The effect of an essential oil mix derived from oregano, clove and anise on broiler performance. International Journal of Poultry Science 4: 879–884.
Jang, I.S., Ko, Y.H., Kang, S.Y., Lee, C.Y. (2007) Effect of a commercial essential oil on growth performance, digestive enzyme activity and intestinal microflora population in broiler chickens. Animal Feed Science and Technology 134: 304–315.
Jang, I.S., Ko, Y.H., Yang ,H.Y., Ha, J.S., Kim, J.Y., Kang, S.Y., Yoo, D.H., Nam, D.S., Kim, D.H. and Lee, C.Y. (2004) Influence of essential oil components on growth performance and the functional activity of the pancreas and small intestine in broiler chickens. Asian - Australasian JournalofAnimalSciences. Vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 394-400.
Lee, K.W., Everts, H., Kappert, H.J., Frehner, M. ,Losa, R. and Beynen, A.C. (2003) Effects of dietary essential oil components on growth performance, digestive enzymes and lipid metabolism in female broiler chickens. British Poultry Science. Vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 450–457
Oviedo-Rondón, E.O., Clemente-Hernández, S., Salvador, F., Williams, P and Losa, R. (2006) Essential oils on mixed coccidia vaccination and infection in broilers. International Journal of Poultry Science 5 (8): 723-730.
Oviedo-Rondón, E.O., Clemente-Hernández, S., Williams, P and Losa, R. (2005) Responses of coccidia-vaccinated broilers to essential oil blends supplementation up to forty-nine days of age. Journal of Applied Poultry Research 14: 657–664
Partanen, K.H. and Mroz, Z. (1999) Organic acids for performance enhancement in pig diets. Nutrition Research Reviews,Wallingford. Vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 117-145.
Vieira, S.L., Oyarzabal, O.A., Freitas, D.M., Berres, J., Peña, J.E.M., Torres, C.A. and Coneglian, J.L.B. (2008) Performance of broilers fed diets supplemented with sanguinarine-like alkaloids and organic acids. Journal of Applied Poultry Research 17: 128–133
World Health Organization (2000) WHO global principles for the containment of antimicrobial resistance in animals intended for food. http://www.who.int/emc/diseases/zoo/who_global_principles/index.htm. Accessed Feb 2012.
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