performance, morphological responses of the small intestine, and humoral immunity of broilers fed oak acorn (quercus brantii) as a substitution for antibiotic growth promoters

This experiment was conducted to examine the effect of different levels of oak acorn (quercus brantii) as a substitution for in-feed antibiotics (ifa) on growth performance, carcass traits, morphological responses of the small intestine and humoral immune responses in broiler chickens. three hundred, 1-day-old broiler chicks (ross 308) were allotted into 5 groups in a 6 wk study. the dietary treatments consisted of a corn-soybean coccidiostat-free basal diet as a control, control + 2 mg lincomycin/kg, or control + 10, 15 or 20 g oak acorn/kg. dietary supplementation of lincomycin or 10 g oak acorn/kg significantly (p<0.05) enhanced final body weight of broilers at 42 d. overall daily feed intake during the trial was higher (p<0.05) in broil-ers fed diets containing lincomycin or different levels of oak acorn compared with broilers fed basal diet. during the whole experiment feed:gain was significantly (p<0.05) better in broilers fed basal diet or basal diet supplemented with 10 g oak acorn/kg compared with other treatments. carcass yield was significantly (p<0.05) higher in broilers fed diets containing 10 g oak/kg compared with other groups. in the duodenum, broilers fed diets containing antibiotic or 10 g oak acorn/kg had significantly (p<0.05) higher villus height:crypt depth ratio (vh/cd) compared with other groups. in jejunum and ileum the highest (p<0.05) vh/cd was obtained in broilers fed diets containing 10 g oak acorn/kg. supplementation with 10 g oak acorn/kg led to higher antibody titers against newcastle, and influenza viruses (p<0.05). in summary, the results indicate that addition of 10 g oak acorn/kg could induce favorable influences on growth perform-ance, structure of the small intestine and immune responses of broilers and it could be consumed in broiler diets as a substitution for ifa.