The effect of chicory root powder on growth performance and some blood parameters of broilers fed wheat-based diets

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of the chicory root powder (CRP) on growth performance and some blood parameters in broiler chickens fed whole wheat (WW) or ground wheat (GW) based diets. A total of 240 one-day old (Ross 308) broiler chickens used in a completely randomised design (with 4 × 2 factorial arrangement), allocated to 8 treatments with 3 replicate and 10 birds per pen. Treatments were a combination of four levels of CRP (0%, 1.5%, 3%, 4.5%) and two forms of wheat grain (whole vs. ground). No differences were found for body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) between treatments during starter period (1–21 d). BWG of 4.5% CRP diet fed birds was significantly (p < 0.05) lower than that of control treatment during the growth (21–42 d) and whole trail period (1–42 d). FI and FCR in birds fed CRP diets were not significantly different compared to those of control (free CRP). Feeding WW compared to GW resulted in a significant increase in the relative weight of the gizzard. Feeding 4.5% CRP + GW decreased significantly triglyceride (TG) and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)– cholesterol levels, but the total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein–cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein–cholesterol were not affected by dietary treatments. The results shown that feeding CRP up to 4.5% in GW-based diets significantly decreased TG and VLDL–cholesterol concentrations without adverse effects on broilers performance.