The Effect of Ceratonia siliqua in Comparison with Antibiotics and Prebiotics on Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Immune System, and Blood Parameters of Broiler Chickens

Improving the effective factors in the production of broiler chickens is one of the most important goals of the poultry industry in the whole world. Today, natural growth supplements have been introduced to achieve optimal poultry performance, including probiotics and medicinal plants that have been used to improve growth rate or bird health.

This experiment was conducted in a completely random design with 300 Ross 308 broilers to investigate the effects of antibiotics, prebiotics and locust bean gum on performance, carcass characteristics, immune system and blood parameters of broilers. Chickens were distributed in 6 treatments and 5 replications (10 replicates per chick). The experimental groups were as following: 1) the control with basal diet (no antibiotics and no growth stimulator); 2) treatment  with virginiamycin antibiotic (100 mg/kg of diet); 3) treatment  with celmanax prebiotic (25 mg/kg of diet); 4) treatment  with celmanax prebiotic (50 mg/kg of diet); 5) treatment  with locust bean gum (25 mg/kg of diet); and 6) treatment  with locust bean gum (50 mg/kg of diet).

The results showed that seed gum in both doses without affecting the feed intake, the highest weight gain was observed in Salmanax prebiotic treatment in dose of 50 mg/kg. The best feed conversion ratio was observed in Salmanax prebiotic treatment of 50 mg/kg. The percentage of breast was significantly higher with the addition of 50 mg of prebiotics compared to the control group (p<0.05). Fabricius bursa weight and antibody titer produced against Newcastle were significantly increased by adding 50 mg of prebiotics to the diet in compare of control group (p<0.05). Also, the mean concentrations of cholesterol and LDL in Salmanax and mustard seed gum groups at 50 mg levels were significantly lower than the control group.

Although the addition of carob seed gum to broiler diets on yield did not cause a significant difference in carcass characteristics compared to the control, it was more effective than the experimental group containing antibiotics. Due to the positive effects of prebiotics and carob seed gum, it is possible to use these compounds as growth stimulants to eliminate antibiotics from poultry diets.