Abstract
The present study aimed to examine the impact of dietary supplementation of Boswellia serrata (BS) (frankincense) resin on growth and carcass traits, blood hematology, serum metabolites and cecal microbiota of growing rabbits. One hundred New Zealand White (NZW) growing male rabbits (6-weeks old) were divided randomly into five groups using different levels of BS (0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 g/kg diet, respectively). When compared to the control diet, daily body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of rabbits fed BS enriched-diets were improved, while feed intake was significantly decreased. A gradual depression (P < 0.01) in serum triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and low density lipoproteins (LDL) were observed with increasing BS level the in diet. Total bacteria count, E. coli and salmonella populations were lower (P < 0.05) in rabbit groups fed diet enriched with BS than that of the control group. Based on these findings, the dietary supplementation of Boswellia serrata enhanced growth, feed efficiency, anti-oxidant status, and minimize cecal pathogenic bacteria in rabbits.
Highlights
Natural growth enhancers are a broadly used approach to improve the utilization of nutrients after the ban on anti-biotics in rabbit diets [1]
The B. serrata essential oil has plentiful attributes of interest, comprising anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and anti-oxidant activities as well as immunostimulatory agent, and it was successfully used as natural feed additive for poultry [5, 6, 8, 9, 20]; there is a lack of information on the use of this medicinal plants in rabbit
Our findings revealed that dietary supplementation with Boswellia serrata (BS) significantly increased live body weight (LBW) compared with control (Table 2)
Summary
Natural growth enhancers are a broadly used approach to improve the utilization of nutrients after the ban on anti-biotics in rabbit diets [1]. Supplying animals and poultry with a diet enriched with phytogenic feed additives may have beneficial effects such as improvement of nutrient utilization, gut health and stimulation of immune system [1,2,3]. Boswellia serrata (BS) or frankincense from the Arabian Peninsula belonging to the Burseraceae family. It possesses various therapeutic activities, for example, bactericidal and anti-inflammatory properties, due to the precence of many aromatic compounds with boswellic acid the most active molecule [5,6,7,8,9].
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