Effects of dietary mixed herbal extracted product supplementation on fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome protection and productive performances of broilers

Abstract

A sample of 880 day-old broilers was used to investigate the efficacy of a mixed herbal extracts product (MHEP) from Azadiracta indica, Eclipta alba, Medicago sativa, Eleuisine coracana, Phyllanthus amarus and Solanum nigrum to protect against the fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome (FLHS) and its effect on growth performance. Animals were assigned to four groups and four replicates with each consisting of 55 broilers that were fed the same starter diet until 10 days of age (DOA). Subsequently, broilers randomly received one of the experimental diets: the control diet with 3,100 kcal/kg metabolizable energy (ME) and 3,200 kcal/kg ME for the grower and finisher periods, respectively; or a high energy diet with 3,200 kcal/kg ME and 3,300 kcal/kg ME (HE-diet); and the HE-diet supplemented with 250 mg/kg MHEP (HE250) and 500 (HE500) mg/kg MHEP, respectively. The growth performance and the histopathological lesion scores of liver tissue were evaluated and blood was collected for measurement of serum triglyceride, lipid-peroxidation and alanine-aminotransferase (ALT) activity. The results showed that feeding the HE-diet lowered the feed intake in the grower period compared to the control group (1474.4 vs 1566.3 g/bird), leading to a significant decrease in growth performances (1132.2 vs 1213.4 g/bird), but these detrimental effects were not found in finisher period. Feeding with HE250 resulted in growth improvement of broilers in both the grower and finisher periods, but HE500 did not show any advantages. The liver lesion score and ALT activity were not significantly affected, whereas a decrease in serum triglyceride (70.9 mg/dl vs 46.8 mg/dl) and an increase in TBA-MDA adduct (2.56 vs 3.04 nmol/ml) resulted from the MHEP application. In conclusion, 250 mg/kg MHEP supplementation improved the broiler growth performance, but no protective ability against FLHS was evident.