Cranberry Leaves as Feed Additive in Poultry Nutrition: Effects on Performance and Oxidative Stability

Abstract

Cranberries, like other plants from the berry family, are very popular due to their composition rich in bioactive compounds with strong antioxidant activity. The leaves belonging to that species can be considered a cost-effective alternative in the context of reducing antibiotics strategy in animal nutrition. Studies on their potential effects as feed additive are limited in poultry nutrition. The aim of the current study is to assess the effects of inclusion of cranberry leaves in an omega 3 enriched diet of broilers on productive parameters and evaluate the markers of antioxidant defence system. An experiment was conducted on 120 Cobb 500 broiler chickens, housed in an experimental hall with permanent wood shave litter, in boxes of 3 m2. The dietary treatments were based on corn and soybean meal, and the experimental group fed diets supplemented with 1% cranberry leaves (E1) and other with combination of cranberry leaves (1%) and walnut meal (6%) (E2). The results showed that the presence of cranberry leaves in an omega 3 enriched diet affected the final body weight of broilers (C–3140 g; E1–2649 g and E2–2538 g); the average daily gain (C–92.91 g; E1–88.32 g and E2–84.63 g) compared to other two groups. No significant differences were recorded for average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio. The antioxidant compounds from cranberry leaves structure positively affected the MDA concentrations determined in serum and liver samples (C–0.153 ppm; E1–0.133 ppm for serum samples and C–0.359 ppm; E1–0.319 ppm for liver samples). By inclusion in an omega enriched diet, no significant differences were detected compared to C for serum (E2–0.155 ppm) and almost 10% decreasing values were recorded for MDA values determined in liver samples (0.324 ppm).

Keywords

• broilers
• cranberry leaves
• mda values
• performance