Effects of Fennel Seed Powder Supplementation on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Meat Quality, and Economic Efficiency of Broilers under Thermoneutral and Chronic Heat Stress Conditions.

Ahmed A Al-Sagan,Elsayed O S Hussein,Youssef A Attia,Shady Khalil

doi:10.3390/ani10020206

Abstract

Simple SummaryNowadays, great attention has been given to phytogenic products as a growth enhancer due to their safety and eco-friendly influences on animal nutrition. Thus, this investigation looked at the use of fennel seed powder at 0, 1.6, and 3.2% as a dietary additive on the performance, carcass traits, meat quality, and efficiency of the production of broiler chickens raised under thermoneutral and chronic heat stress conditions. In essence, 3.2% fennel seed powder in the diet of broilers enhanced the growth rate under chronic heat stress and decreased breast meat redness and temperature, suggesting that 3.2% fennel seed could be used as an agent for enhancing the broiler’s tolerance during chronic heat stress (CHS) condition from 19 to 41 days of age.Nowadays, phytogenic products have received great attention as a growth promoter due to their safety and environmentally friendly effect as a replacement for classical growth promoters such as antibiotics in animal nutrition. Thus, this research seeks the possibility of using fennel seed powder (FSP) as a dietary additive from 19 to 41 days of age on productive performance, carcass traits, meat quality, and production efficiency of broiler chickens raised under thermoneutral and chronic heat stress conditions. Thus, 216 one-day-old Ross-308 broiler chicks were divided into two equal groups. The first group was placed in an independent temperature-controlled room at 23 ± 2 °C. The broiler chicks from the second group were placed in a heat-stressed room and exposed to chronic heat stress conditions (32 ± 2 °C) for seven hours per day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The experimental design was 2 × 3 factorial including two environmental temperatures (thermoneutral vs chronic heat stress) and three experimental diets that contained 0, 1.6, and 3.2% FSP. The chickens were randomly assigned to 18-floor pens per room temperature, representing six replicates per treatment and six birds per replicate. The results showed that dietary fennel seed powder during days 19–41 of age enhanced the growth rate of broiler chickens and improved breast meat redness and reduced temperature under chronic heat stress. In conclusion, 3.2% of fennel seed powder could be used as an agent for enhancing the broiler’s tolerance during chronic heat stress condition from 19 to 41 days of age. Moreover, it is necessary to study in further detail the nitrite and nitrate contents in FSP and their impacts on muscle redness (a*) as well as muscle temperature.

Highlights

In hot regions, the poultry industry is significantly affected by high ambient temperatures, especially when combined with high relative air moisture contents [1,2,3]
Under heat stress, the highest body weight gain (BWG) and production index were recorded in the 3.2%
The results indicate that the percentages of dressing, abdominal fat, leg, gizzard, and liver were not significantly different among the heat stress groups and/or the dietary fennel seed powder (FSP) groups

Summary

Introduction

The poultry industry is significantly affected by high ambient temperatures, especially when combined with high relative air moisture contents (humidity) [1,2,3]. A further increase of 0.6–2.5 ◦ C is expected to occur due to global warming over the 50 years [4]. Optimum temperatures for broiler performance are 34–32, 32–28, 28–26, 26–24, 18–24, and 18–24 ◦ C for the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth weeks of age, respectively [5]. It is necessary to reevaluate poultry management to minimize heat stress. Signs of heat stress begin to appear when the environmental temperature increases above 30 ◦ C [6]. High temperatures can cause serious physiological disturbances [7].

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