effect of different levels of herbal medicine on growth performance, gastrointestinal tract traits and jejunal morphology of broilers

Phytogenic feed additives are products being obtained from plants (1). the herbal products positively affect bird performance and health due to their anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, immune boosting, and gut manipulation properties (2,3). in this respect, this experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different levels of mixture of herbal medicine (hm), including curcuma longa, artemisia aucheri boiss, and peppermint on growth performance, gastrointestinal tract organs weight and jejunal morphology of broilers from day 1 to day 42 of age. a total of 200 one-day-old chicks (ross 308) were allocated in five treatments and four replicates (10 birds/pen in each), based on a completely randomized design. dietary treatments included a corn-soybean meal basal diet (control) and treatments 2 to 5 including 3, 6, 9 and 12 kg/ton of hm, respectively. the results showed that inclusion of hm in the diet significantly improved body weight gain and feed conversion ratio compared to the control group from day 1 to day 42 of age. in relative terms, the weights of the gastrointestinal tract (with digesta), proventriculus, gizzard, liver and spleen were not affected by treatments. also, the inclusion of hm did not affect the villus height, crypt depth and villus to crypt ratio of the jejunum. in conclusion, the inclusion of hm in the diet did not affect weight of the gastrointestinal tract organs and jejunal morphology, but improved growth performance of broilers from day 1 to day 42 of age.