Abstract
ABSTRACTA total of 160 1-d-old ducklings (mixed gender) were used to evaluate the effects of dietary phytogenic supplementation on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and nutrient digestibility. Each treatment consisted of eight replications and five birds/replication. Treatments were: (T1) high nutrient diet; (T2) T1+phytobiotics; (T3) low nutrient diet; (T4) T3+phytobiotics. The results indicated that inclusion of phytobiotics and nutrients’ density of diets influenced body weight gain and feed conversion ratio (P < .05). Feeding low nutrient diets had a negative effect on drip loss percentage. Cooking loss percentage increased (P < .05) by reducing nutrient density. Relative weights of breast muscle, abdominal fat and body organs, pH value, and colour of breast muscle were not affected by treatment diets. Supplementing the diets reduced TBARS value on d 14 post-slaughter (P < .05). Density of nutrients and phytogenic blend (P < .05) improved the digestibility of dry matter and energy, but the digestibility of calcium and phosphorous were not affected by treatments.
Highlights
The use of antibiotics as growth promoters (GPA) was common in the poultry industry for decades
The results indicated that inclusion of phytobiotics and nutrients’ density of diets influenced body weight gain and feed conversion ratio (P < .05)
On d 21–42, body weight gain (BWG) was affected by the nutrient density of diets and inclusion of phytogenic blend (P < .05), but feed conversion ratio (FCR) was not affected during d 21–42
Summary
The use of antibiotics as growth promoters (GPA) was common in the poultry industry for decades. The majority of published data show reduced feed intake (FI) with an improved growth performance when using phytogenic feed additives in diets of broiler chickens (Botsoglou et al 2002; Lee et al 2003; Hernandez et al 2004; Shanmugavelu et al 2004; Jang et al 2007, Franz et al 2010) that contain oregano essential oil, thymol, cinnamaldehyde, pepper, garlic powder, and a commercial blend of essential oils containing thymol. Considering the production and proportion of meat-type ducks in the poultry industry, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of phytogenic blend containing capsicum oleoresin, cinnamaldehyde, and carvacrol (Xtract®, Pancosma, Geneva, Switzerland) on nutrient digestibility, growth performance, carcass characteristics, and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) values in ducks
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