Lemon grass essential oil on productive characteristics of broiler chickens

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of lemon grass essential oil on the performance and yield of organs and commercial cuts of broiler chickens. Seventy-two one-day-old broiler chicks of the lineage Cobb 500 were evaluated for 42 days. A completely randomized experimental design was used, with three treatments of six broiler chicks and four replications. The treatments consisted of negative control diet (NCD), composed of basal feed, without antimicrobial; positive control diet (PCD), composed of basal feed with antimicrobial (zinc bacitracin) and anticoccidial; and lemon grass diet (LGD), composed of NCD with lemon grass essential oil. The performance of the broilers was lower with the use of lemon grass oil, compared with those in the treatment PCD. The broiler chickens in the treatment LGD had the lowest gizzard and drumstick weights and their commercial cuts were negatively affected by this treatment. Therefore, the use of lemon grass essential oil in the chicken broiler diet negatively affects their productive characteristics.