application of fruit wastes in broiler diets: their effects on performance, immunity and cecal bacteria

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary inclusion of natural fruit wastes, including apple pulp powder (app), lemon pulp powder (lpp), and pomegranate peel powder (ppp), on the performance, immunity status, some cecal bacteria count, and carcass characteristics in broilers. a total of 260 male and female ross 308 broiler chicks were distributed in a completely randomized design among 5 experimental treatments with 4 replicate pens of 13 birds each. the control group was fed a basal diet without any additive, while groups 2-5 were fed the same basal diet supplemented with antibiotics, 2% app, 2% lpp, and 2% ppp, respectively. birds were reared under the same management conditions for 42 days. the results indicated that all of the additives caused greater body weight gain (bwg) during the grower period (d 11-24; p<0.05). addition of antibiotics and lpp had a similar growth-promoting effect on overall bwg (d 1-42). supplementation of the diet with ppp during the starter and all of additives during the grower period resulted in better feed conversion ratio (fcr) compared to that of the control group. feeding birds with antibiotics, app and lpp improved overall fcr compared to the control group. the additives did not affect the weight of spleen and bursa of fabricius, concentration of total, y, and m immunoglobulins as well as the carcass characteristics (p>0.05). the lower count of cecal escherichia coli was determined in app group (p<0.05). in conclusion, app, and lpp had similar growth-promoting activity as antibiotics. the inclusion of app beneficially influenced the cecal bacteria balance. these positive effects suggested that app, lpp, and ppp could be considered as suitable alternatives to feed antibiotics, resulting in a better food safety and less environmental pollution.