Appropriate selection of fruits and vegetables would help to achieve a higher antioxidant intake with the potential to produce significant health benefits.

A B S T R A C TAn experiment was conducted on 210 healthy one day old broiler chicks to evaluate the effect of synbiotics and/ or essential oils on induced necrotic enteritis (NE) and coccidiosis. The treated groups were, 1) ABAC group: challenged with Eimeria spp. + C. perfringens and fed basal diet with antibiotic and anticoccidial drugs; 2) SY group: challenged with Eimeria spp. + C. perfringens and fed basal diet with synbiotic; 3) EO group: challenged with Eimeria spp. + C. perfringens and fed basal diet with essential oils (EO); 4) SYEO group: challenged with Eimeria spp. + C. perfringens and fed basal diet with combination of synbiotics and essential oils; 5) CO group: fed basal diet and challenged with Eimeria spp.; 6) NE group: fed basal diet and challenged with Eimeria spp. + C. perfringens, and 7) CN group: fed basal diet. All additives were given from 0 day (d) to 35 d. The results showed positive impact of synbiotic and EO treatments on lesion scoring and C. perfringens quantification in comparison with challenged non treated groups. The body weight did not show significant improvement (P>0.05) in SY group but the EO group increased the BW (P>0.05). The treatments significantly decreased the oocyst shedding, dropping scoring and litter scoring against coccidiosis infection in comparison with NE group (P<0.05). The ABAC group showed insignificant decline in dropping and litter scoring in comparison with synbiotic and EO treatments (P>0.05). All treatments significantly improved the histopathological lesion scoring of intestine and liver as well as the coccidial infection score (P<0.05). Our data suggest that synbiotic and essential oils may be used as potential candidates for antibiotic and anticoccidial feed additives as they can promote better intestinal health.

One hundred and eighty healthy one-day-old broiler chicks were used to evaluate the effect of synbiotics and/ or essential oils (EO) as alternatives to antibiotics on performance in induced necrotic enteritis (NE) and immunity. EO treatment improved the total feed conversion ratio (FCR) in comparison with challenged non-treated group and antibiotic treated group. While using synbiotics did not ameliorate the negative impact of necrotic enteritis challenge on feed intake and FCR. The treatments had positive impact on immune response to vaccination against Newcastle disease (ND), infectious bronchitis (IB), avian influenza (AI) and infectious bursal disease (IBD) as well as they increased the spleen relative weight. The synbiotic treatment alleviate the histopathological changes from vaccination in bursa of Fabricius (BF) as well as antibiotic treated group. The results suggest that EO and synbiotics, as replacements to antibiotics, may be an effective tool to augment performance and immune response of NE challenged birds.

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