Effects of dietary supplementation with oregano essential oil on growth performance, carcass traits and jejunal morphology in broiler chickens

• Published in: Animal feed science and technology 2016-04, Vol.214, p.148-153
• Main Authors: Peng, Q.Y., Li, J.D., Li, Z., Duan, Z.Y., Wu, Y.P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Broiler; Carcass traits; Growth performance; Gut morphology; Oregano essential oil
• ISSN: 0377-8401; 1873-2216
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2016.02.010

•Oregano essential oil increased the final BW, ADG and ADFI.•OEO supplementation improved the dressing percentage and eviscerated rate.•Broilers fed with OEO600 had the highest breast muscle percentage and the lowest abdominal fat percentage.•OEO decreased the crypt depth and increased the villus height to crypt depth ratio.•OEO may be a promising alternative to antibiotic growth promoters such as avilamycin. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of diets containing oregano essential oil (OEO) on growth performance, carcass traits and intestinal morphology of broilers during a 42-day production period. A total of 448 one-day-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly distributed into 4 dietary treatments with 7 replicate pens per treatment and 16 birds per pen. The dietary treatments were as follows: (1) corn-soybean basal diet (control, CON), (2) CON+8mg/kg avilamycin (AVI), (3) CON+300mg/kg OEO preparation (OEO300), and (4) CON+600mg/kg OEO preparation (OEO600). The results showed that both OEO300 and OEO600 groups increased (P=0.007) the final body weight compared to the CON group. On day 21, OEO600 increased average daily gain (ADG) and lowered feed conversion ratio (both P