Does the dietary supplementation of organic nano-zinc as a growth promoter impact broiler's growth, carcass and meat quality traits, blood metabolites and cecal microbiota?

The present investigation aimed to examine the impact of different dietary organic zinc nanoparticle (ZnNP) levels on gut bacteria, meat quality, growth performance, carcass traits, and blood indicators of broilers. A total of 180 unsexed one-wk broiler chicks (Cobb) were allotted to 3 experimental groups and received a basal diet supplemented with 0, 0.2, and 0.4 mg ZnNPs/Kg diet, respectively. The results showed that, after 38 d of age, the supplementary ZnNPs at a level of 0.4 mg/kg raised body weight and weight gain compared to the control and 0.2 mg ZnNPs/kg diet. The addition of ZnNPs improved the daily feed intake. Some of the carcass characteristics in ZnNPs groups excelled that of the control. ZnNPs treatments gave higher dressing % and decreased (P < 0.05) the cholesterol rates, LDL, and uric acid in the blood. In addition, it gave the best concentrations of ALT and AST. The ZnNPs groups exhibited substantially (P < 0.05) improved moisture and fat values in meat samples. The group given ZnNPs at a concentration of 0.4 mg/kg had a substantially (P < 0.05) lower count of TYMC and E. coli. In conclusion, the high level of ZnNPs (0.4 mg/kg) improved the broilers' performance and some of their carcass traits, enhancing their health and meat quality.

Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Organic Selenium Nanoparticles on Growth Performance and Carcass Traits of Broiler Chickens.

This study examined how broilers up to 38 days of age fared regarding growth efficiency and carcass characteristics concerning selenium nanoparticle activities (SeNPs). A total of 180 one-week-old broiler (Cobb 500) chicks without sex were randomly allocated into three groups, each with six replications of 10 chicks. The trial took 38 days to complete. The three study dietary groups were fed ad libitum feed and water throughout their 38-day of age, along with corn-and-soybean meal-based diets supplemented with 0 (control), 1.5, and 2.0 ml SeNPs (concentration = 5%) /kg diet, respectively. According to the current findings, the SeNP supplementation groups had greater body weight, weight gain, and performance indicators than the control group after 38 days of the feeding experiment. The findings demonstrated that dietary interventions did not affect the amount of feed consumed (FC) per chick per day or the feed conversion ratio (FCR). The conclusion is that adding SeNPs to broiler diets at 1.5 or 2.0 ml/kg increased productivity. In contrast, lower levels of selenium (Se) (1.5 ml/kg diet) showed encouraging results and could be employed as a useful feed additive in broilers.

Nutritional value, productive performance, and economic efficiency response to the degree of steam-flaked yellow corn in growing rabbits.

The performance of a corn steam flaker was evaluated to improve steam-flaked corn (SFC) quality and investigate its feeding effects on nutritional value, productive performance, digestibility coefficients, and economic efficiency of growing rabbits. The flaker performance was studied as a function of change in steaming time, steam chest temperature and roll gap. Performance evaluation of the flaker was carried out in terms of flake thickness (FT), flake density (FD) and processing index (PI) as well as rabbit feeding trials. Experimental results clarified that values of FT, FD and PI are in the optimal limits under conditions of 118°C steam chest temperature, 40 min steaming time and 0.80 mm roll gap. Steam flaking is an acceptable process for rabbit feeds as SFC with optimal FD of between 0.36 and 0.39 kg/L corresponding to a PI of between 50.14% and 54.32% significantly improve the nutritional value of SFC compared with whole corn grain by 1.31%, 1.26% and 160.75% respectively. Also, SFC severely decreased the total count of harmful bacteria, fungi count and mortality rate compared to whole corn grain. Rabbits fed SFC processed to the density of 0.36 kg/L of the diet had better body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, organic matter digestibility, net revenue and economic efficiency of 9.29%, 8.89%, 4.65%, 15.62% and 15.43% compared with rabbit fed whole yellow corn grain respectively. In conclusion, it is convenient to entirely substitute whole corn grain with SFC to be utilised in rabbits' diets where achieved the best feeding effects results.

Efficacy of ascorbic acid and different sources of orange peel on growth performance, gene expression, anti-oxidant status and microbial activity of growing rabbits under hot conditions.

Orange peel and its extract are good sources of phenols and vitamin C that can be used as powerful antioxidants and antibacterial. The effects of dietary ascorbic acid (AA), orange peel powder (OPP) and orange peel extract (OPE) supplementations on growth performance, blood biochemicals, gene expression and antioxidant status of growing rabbits under hot conditions were investigated. A total of 80 weaned Giant Flander male rabbits, five weeks old (606.25 ± 10.08 g), were randomly assigned to four groups. The first group received untreated diet (control group). The other groups received diets supplemented with 0.5 g AA/kg diet, 2% OPP and 500 mg OPE/kg diet. The lowest feed conversion ratio (FCR) was recorded by rabbits consumed diet supplemented with AA. Supplementations of OPP and OPE reduced blood plasma total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein and very-low density lipoprotein concentrations. The tested diets reduced triglycerides, total lipids, hydrogen peroxide, malondialdehyde levels, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli of the rabbits cecum. Supplementation of OPE improved activities of superoxide dismutase gene (6.1475) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (9.2108). Conclusively, dietary supplementation of OPE improved rabbit performance through improving antioxidant enzyme activities as well as upregulation of insulin-like growth gene. Additionally, OPP and OPE (2% and 500 mg/kg diet, respectively) had antibacterial effects for growing rabbits under hot conditions.

Impacts of Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) extract supplementation on growing Japanese quails' growth, carcass traits, blood indices, nutrients digestibility and gut microbiota.

This work aimed to assess how Portulaca oleracea extract (POE) affected Japanese quail's growth, carcass features, blood parameters, digestibility coefficients, and microbiological aspects. A total of two hundred twenty-five 7-days-old Japanese quails were allotted into 5 experimental groups. Birds were divided as follows: group 1) received only the base diet (control), while groups 2, 3, 4, and 5 received the basal feed supplied with 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 mL POE/kg diet, respectively. The findings cleared those quails' fed diets supplemented with POE had significantly (P > 0.01) higher body weight (BW) and body weight growth (BWG) than the control group. The treatment with POE significantly affected digestive enzymes (amylase and lipase) and digestion coefficients for ether extract (EE). The treated groups had decreased serum urea and malonaldehyde (MDA) and increased Immunoglobulin G (IgG), Immunoglobulin M (IgM), superoxide dismutase (SOD), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), glutathione (GSH), and catalase (CAT) concentrations than the control. All bacterial counts in dietary cecal samples declined with increasing POE levels. In conclusion, POE supplementation improved quails' performance and nutrient digestibility. Moreover, POE did not harm birds' liver and kidney functions. In addition, this extract promoted the immunity and antioxidant status and minimized the harmful microbial load in quails' intestines, the total bacterial count was decreased by 90% in diet samples supplemented with purslane addition level (4 mL/g), while decreased by 74% in cecal samples supplemented with purslane addition level (4 mL/g) and Salmonella don't appear in all addition levels. However, lactic acid bacteria increased by 70%, indicating beneficial of POE in reducing the pathogenic microorganisms.

A comparative study among dietary supplementations of antibiotic, grape seed and chamomile oils on growth performance and carcass properties of growing rabbits.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of chamomile oil (Ch), grape seed oil (GS), their mixture and antibiotic (colistin) (AN) as feed addetives on the productivity of growing rabbits as well as in vitro study to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of both Ch and GS oils. To achive this objective, a total of 96 New Zealand (NZW) weaned rabbits, 5 weeks-old were randomly allotted into eight groups. Rabbits were kept under observation for eight weeks and the trial ended at thirteen weeks-old. The experimental treatments were: 1) Basal diet (BD); 2) BD + antibiotic; 3) BD + 0.5 ml GS/ kg diet; 4) BD + 1.0 ml GS/ kg diet; 5) BD + 1.5 ml GS/ kg diet; 6) BD + 0.5 ml Ch/ kg diet; 7) BD + 1.0 ml Ch/ kg diet and 8) BD + 1.5 Ch/ kg diet. Live body weight (LBW) was markedly elevated (p < 0.05) in groups fed on ration included feed additives compared with the control at weeks 9 and 13 of age. Cumulative body weight gain (BWG) and feed intake (FI) increased (p < 0.05) throughout 5-9 and 5-13 weeks of age in rabbits fed rations plus the studied additives. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was insignificantly altered by dietary feed additives. Spleen and intestine relative weights reduced (p < 0.05) in groups treated with different studied additives. In view of the experiment finings, it could be concluded that dietary supplementation of GS and Ch have a positive impact on the productivity of growing rabbits than that of the control and antibiotic-treated groups.