Abstract
Abstract This investigation was aimed to evaluate the effects of Silybum marianum seed, Thymus vulgaris, and Rosmarinus officinalis powders and their combination in alleviating the risks of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in young broiler chicks. One-day-old Ross 308 male broiler chickens were allocated to 6 experimental groups from d 1 to 21. The experimental dietary groups included: Negative control (NC) received the basal diet, Positive control (PC) containing 2 mg AFB1/kg diet; Positive control + 10 g/kg diet of Silybum marianum seed (SMS); Positive control + 10 g/kg diet of Thymus vulgaris (TV); Positive control + 5 g/kg diet of Rosmarinus officinalis (RO); Positive control + 10 g/kg diet of SMS + 10 g/kg diet of TV + 5 g/kg diet of RO as a blend of herbs (BH). There was no difference between feed intake and body weight gain among the experimental groups (P>0.05). In contrast, the feed conversion rate (FCR) in NC and SMS groups was lower than in other groups (P<0.05). Calcium levels and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) were lower in serum samples, but the activity of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were higher in PC chickens (P<0.05). Increase in the thigh muscle malondialdehyde (MDA) in chickens fed AFB1 was significantly reduced in the NC, SMS, and BH chickens (P<0.05). Chickens of NC and SMS groups showed the highest response to respiratory burst of heterophil (NBT assay) and lymphocyte proliferation assays (MTT assay) (P<0.05). In conclusion, the addition of studied herbs, especially SMS, to the AFB1 contaminated diet could have a protective effect against aflatoxicosis in broiler chickens.
Highlights
The feed conversion rate (FCR) between 0 and 7 d was lower for the Silybum marianum seed (SMS) group (P
Chicks fed on aflatoxin B1 contaminated feed alone (PC group) led to the significantly declined serum calcium and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), as well as increased ALT and AST activity (P
Compared with the Positive control (PC) chicks, adding SMS, Thymus vulgaris (TV), and Rosmarinus officinalis (RO) to the aflatoxin B1 contaminated feed enhanced the levels of calcium and HDL, reducing the ALT and AST activity
Summary
Two hundred and forty Ross 308 d-old male broiler chicks were divided, based on a completely randomized design, into 6 experimental groups and five replicates (10 chicks per replicate) for 21 days. Polymorphonuclear heterophile and lymphocytes were isolated from normal chickens employing the indicated modifications in previously described procedures (Brooks et al, 1996) on day 21 of the experiment. The cells were pre-incubated for 2 hours at 37 ̊C in a moist atmosphere containing 5 % of CO2 This method supported monocytes' adherence to the culture plate, where the non-adherent lymphocytes were eliminated, vigorously washing three times with an ice-cold medium. Trypan blue dye exclusion method was employed to examine the cells' viability (Gibco/Life Technology Inc., USA) After this procedure, the purity of live neutrophils was 94 %. Lymphocyte proliferation assay (MTT assay) The isolated lymphocytes were cultured in 96-well flat-bottomed plates (1×105 cells/100 μl/well), pulsed with phytohemagglutinin (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) either at a final concentration of 5 μg/ml or a medium alone. In which Yij is observation j of experimental unit subjected to treatments i; μ, the population mean; Xi is the effect of ith treatment, and eij is the experimental error
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