Evaluation of dried powder of mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) as an antibiotic growth promoter substitution on performance, carcass traits and humoral immune responses in broiler chickens

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of edible mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) in comparison with an antibiotic growth promoter (flavophospholipol) on performance, carcass characteristics and immune responses of broiler chicks. In these trial 180 nine day old mix sexes broiler chicks (Ross 308) were weighed and randomly allocated to 1 of 6 experimental treatments. Each treatment consisted of 3 replicates of 10 birds. The 6 treatments were as follow: Basal diet (control); Basal diet + antibiotic (4.5 mg flavophospholipol/kg diet); and basal diet supplemented with either levels of 5, 10, 20 or 30 g of dried mushroom/kg of feed. Body weights (BW) of broilers were determined at day 9, 21, and 45, feed intake was determined at the same periods, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was calculated accordingly. At day 45, two birds per replicate were slaughtered for determination of carcass and organ weights. Antibody titers against Newcastle (NDV), and sheep red blood cells (SRBC) were determined. The results showed that the use of 30 g mushroom/kg diet led to the highest antibody titers against SRBC (p 0.05). Broilers receiving flavophospholipol had lower FCR compared to broilers receiving 10 or 20 g mushroom/kg during total period of trial (P < 0.05) but it was not different from broilers fed the basal diet or basal diet supplemented with 5 or 30 g mushroom/kg. FCR of broilers in other periods was not affected. Internal organ weights and carcass traits were not influenced by the dietary treatments at day 45. In conclusion, the results indicated that supplementing broiler diet with 30 g mushroom/kg could induce favorable influences on immune responses of broilers without any adverse effects on performance criteria. Key words: Agaricus bisporus, broilers, carcass characteristics, immune responses, mushroom, performance.