Thyme Leaves Or Its Extracted Oil For Enhancing Productive And Physiological Status Of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of thyme dried leaves (TL), thyme extracted oil (TO) at two levels of each, and antibiotic (Lincomycin Hydrochloride, AB) incorporated to broiler diets on growth performance, carcass characteristics as well as bacteria enumeration, blood serum parameters and economic efficiency. One hundred and eighty unsexed one day old of age Hubbard chicks were weighed and randomly allocated into 6 treatments of 30 chicks in three replicates. The experimental diets were as follows; basal diet without supplementation (control, TR1R), 1.5 g TL/kg (TR2R), 3.0g TL/kg (TR3R), 125 mg TO/kg (TR4R), 250 mg TO/kg (TR5R) and 1.0g AB/kg (TR6R). The main results obtained can be summarized as follows: Chicks fed basal diets supplemented with TO (TR5R) or AB (TR6R) recorded an equal growth performance to chicks fed the control diet. However, they recorded significant lower values of feed conversion ratio. Carcass characteristics were non-significantly different for all treatment groups except abdominal fat % and thymus %. Blood parameters showed insignificant figures in most parameters. However, the addition of TO (TR5R) or TL (TR3R) has a significant effect on total plasma albumin or ALT concentration.