Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of diets containing oregano essential oil (OEO) on growth performance, carcass traits and intestinal morphology of broilers during a 42-day production period. A total of 448 one-day-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly distributed into 4 dietary treatments with 7 replicate pens per treatment and 16 birds per pen. The dietary treatments were as follows: (1) corn-soybean basal diet (control, CON), (2) CON+8mg/kg avilamycin (AVI), (3) CON+300mg/kg OEO preparation (OEO300), and (4) CON+600mg/kg OEO preparation (OEO600). The results showed that both OEO300 and OEO600 groups increased (P=0.007) the final body weight compared to the CON group. On day 21, OEO600 increased average daily gain (ADG) and lowered feed conversion ratio (both P<0.05) compared to the CON. On day 42, both OEO300 and OEO600 groups increased (P<0.05) ADG and average daily feed intake (ADFI) compared to the CON. Moreover, OEO600 increased (P<0.05) ADG and ADFI compared with AVI. Carcass parameters were similar among avilamycin and OEO preparation treatments. Avilamycin and OEO supplementation improved (P<0.05) the dressing percentage and eviscerated rate compared with CON. The broilers fed with OEO600 had the highest (P=0.003) breast muscle percentage, and the lowest (P=0.008) abdominal fat percentage. All treatments had no effect on the villus height in the jejunum of broilers. However, OEO300 and OEO600 decreased (P=0.000) the crypt depth and increased (P=0.000) the villus height to crypt depth ratio compared with CON and AVI, which may contribute to the improvement of growth performance. In conclusion, OEO supplementation exhibited a significantly positive effect on the growth performance, carcass traits and intestinal health of broilers, indicating that OEO may be a promising alternative to antibiotic growth promoters.
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