Effect of Fennel and Sage Essential Oil on Nutritive and Bioproductive Indices of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of fennel and sage essential oils administered in a dose of 125, respectively 250 mg/kg CF in the feeding of broiler chickens on the bioproductive indices. The biological material was represented by sexed (male) broiler chickens belonging to the ROSS 308 hybrid on which the phasial breeding (1-10d, 11-21d, 22-35d) was practiced, while observing the recommendations from the ROSS 308 Broiler Management Guide, 2014. The chickens were divided into 5 experimental variants (T0, T1, T2, T3, T4), with 3 replications and 10 chickens/replication. The chickens from T0 (control) have received only the basic diet, for T1 and T2 the basic diet+fennel essential oil (125 and 250 mg/kg CF) were administered, and for T3 and T4, the basic diet+sage essential oil (125 and 250 mg/kg CF). During the first breeding period (0-10d), the highest value for the body weight was recorded at T2 (258.93 g), which also had the lowest feed conversion ratio (1.03 kg CF/kg WG). In the period 11-21d, also in T2, the highest body weight (913.80 g) and the lowest feed conversion ratio (1.29 kg CF/kg WG) were recorded. In the finisher phase (22-35d), T2 maintained differences compared to T0, for body weight +8.01% and -10.56%, for FCR. During the entire breeding period 1-35d, the lowest FCR was recorded in T2 (1.45 kg CF/kg WG). The difference between T2 and T0 was statistically ensured, which highlighted the positive effect of the fennel essential oil (250 mg/kg CF) on the bioproductive performance of broiler chickens.

Keywords

• broilers
• pytoadditives
• essential oils
• fennel
• sage
• performances