Abstract
Broiler chickens are frequently infected with Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria, which often leads to the emergence of many diseases and high economic losses. Hence, the current study was conducted to assess the relative efficacy of dietary rosemary and fenugreek, under E. coli infection in broilers and their ability to replace antimicrobials without any loss of productivity or negative influence on broiler health, via evaluation of growth performance, biochemical indices, immune response and histo-morphological changes. Eighty Cobb broilers were allotted to four equal groups (n = 20 chicks/group): control non-infected (CN), control infected (CI), rosemary infected (RI) and fenugreek infected (FI) groups. The RI and FI groups revealed a significant elevation in their body weight and body weight gain compared with the CI group. However, both groups showed a significant decline in serum aspartate and alanine aminotransferase activities, as well as uric acid and creatinine levels. A significant decrease in total antioxidant capacity, catalase and superoxide dismutase activities was noted among CI chicks. Moreover, distinctly higher activities were evident in both RI and FI groups. Assessment of immunomodulatory markers showed a significant increase in immunoglobulin G along with a significant decline in interleukin-6 level in both RI and FI groups, with the lowest IL-6 value within FI group. Histopathological evaluations focused on the deleterious effect associated with E. coli infection of broilers' liver, kidney, intestine, spleen, bursa of Fabricius and thymus. Partial histological improvement was noticed among RI group, and nearly normal tissues were recorded in FI group. Overall, the obtained findings suggest the ability of fenugreek to mitigate the adverse effects of E. coli infection on broiler performance and tissue profiles, by improving the general health status of the broiler chickens.
Highlights
In the global poultry industry, Escherichia coli (E-Coli) bacteria may lead to great economic losses each year due to high morbidity and mortality rates (Lau et al, 2010)
Broilers are frequently infected with Escherichia coli (E.Coli) bacteria, which often leads to the emergence of many diseases and high economic losses
The present findings indicated a decreasing of BW among rosemary infected (RI) birds compared with control non-infected (CN) group, which came in agreement with Hernández et al (2004); Abd El-Latif et al (2013) and Soltani et al (2016), this likely was due to reduction in feed intake that resulting from the strong flavor of rosemary which need an adaptation period for accommodating oral and nasal sensing, preparing the gastrointestinal tract for food reception, and modulating digestive secretions and gut motility
Summary
In the global poultry industry, Escherichia coli (E-Coli) bacteria may lead to great economic losses each year due to high morbidity and mortality rates (Lau et al, 2010). The emergence of the antibiotics and their continued use in poultry diets has raised many problems of varying severity including environmental pollution as well as the cross-resistance that may pose substantial risks for human health (Asai et al, 2011; Ghozlan et al, 2017). One possibility is the application of probiotics, prebiotics and herbaceous plants or their essential oils (Sarica et al, 2007), to replace antibiotics without negative impact on health or any loss of productivity (Demir et al, 2003; Maiorano et al, 2016 ). Herbal medicine has gained a wide interest in the feed industry, through their appetite and digestion-stimulating, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative and immunostimulant properties (Mirzaei-Aghsaghali, 2012)
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