Objective: To evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of essential oils (EOs) of thyme, clove, and cinnamon to broiler chickens on growth performance, serum metabolites, and tissue lipid peroxidation and antioxidants enzyme activities. Design: Randomized controlled study Animals: One hundred-eighty, one-day-old Cobb broiler chicks were randomly allocated into 4 treatment groups (3 replicates, 15 chicks each). Broilers were reared in deep litter system - pens for 6 weeks of age. Procedures: The control group was fed on corn-soybean basal control diets (starter, grower and finisher) without EOs supplementation. In addition to the basal- control diets, the 3 experimental broiler groups were supplemented with thyme oil (2nd group), clove oil (3rd group) or cinnamon oil (4th group) at 100 mg/kg. Blood, liver and muscle (breast) samples were collected from 3 broilers of each replicate at 40 days of age for measurement of serum metabolites, malondialdehyde (MDA), and antioxidant enzyme activities (liver catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). Results: The broiler chickens fed on the diets supplemented with 100 mg/kg cinnamon oil had significantly higher body weight, body weight gain and feed intake, followed by broiler chickens fed on the diets supplemented with 100 mg/kg thyme and 100 mg/kg clove oils in comparison with control group, which was showed the lowest growth performance. Supplementation with EOs significantly improved feed conversion ratio (FCR), with increased liver CAT, SOD, GSH-Px activities, as well as serum level of high density lipoprotein (HDL) in comparison with control group, also, it induced a significant decrease in serum levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, low density lipoprotein (LDL), as well as both liver and muscle tissue lipid peroxidation (MDA). Conclusion and clinical relevance: The present results indicate that dietary supplementation of EOs (thyme, clove, and cinnamon) at 100 mg/kg resulted in significantly higher body weight, body weight gain, improved FCR, reduced serum cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL. Also, reduced lipid peroxidation in liver and muscle, and improved antioxidants status of broiler chickens.

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To evaluate the growth performance and whole-body composition of growing E. Sea bass cultured in marine water farm and fed commercial fish diets containing 42.3% to 39.60% crude protein (CP) and 17.4 % to 17.8 % fat. Design: Randomized controlled study Samples: Five ponds out of the 8-ponds open marine water farm of 12 Feddans were used. Procedures: Each pond (120 m length x 40 m width x 1.5 m depth) stocked with 5500 growing E. Sea bass of about 25 g initial mean body weight. Fish feeding and management were followed up for 6 months (June to November 2018). Diets (extruded, pelleted, 3-4.5 mm size of different protein levels) offered once daily at satiation (at 7:00 AM) until October and twice daily during November. Diets offered daily decreased from 4.6% of relative BW of fish at the start of the feeding trial to 1.02% at the last month. Partial replacement of ponds water was maintained daily. The high protein diet (42.3%) fed during the first 2 months, in the second 2 months a 40.42% CP diet was fed, while diets fed in the last 2 months contained 39.60% CP. Fish samples (n=20 from each pond) were collected at the end of each month to follow up growth parameters. Fish samples collected (4 from each pond) at the end of the fourth and the sixth months of feeding trial for whole body composition and morphometric indices determination. Results: Body weight gain increased from 47.06 g in the 1st month to 113.80 g at the last month. Feed consumption increased from 68 g/fish/month to 109.08 g/fish/month. Mean body weight of the Sea bass fish was 496.30 g at the end of the follow up feeding periods. Unexpectedly, feed conversion ratio decreased from 1.44 at 1st month to 1.18 at the end of the feeding trial instead of the marked increase in BW of fish. Feed efficiency ratio increased from 69.21% at the 1st month gradually to 87.5% at the end of the 5th month, with a little decrease during last month, (85.0%) parallel to the decrease in water temperature in November. There was a little decrease in moisture percentage of fish body with increase in fish size (67.8 vs 69.10%) with a little increase in protein content (18.55 vs 17.82%) of the Sea bass whole body composition, also fat content increased from 7.94 to 9.25%. Carcass or dressed fish wt. dressed %, fillet yield % and K-factor markedly improved with increasing the fish size at the end of feeding trial. Conclusion and Clinical relevance:In conclusion, it seems that feeding diets containing about 42 to 40 % protein with 17.6 % fat produced appreciable growth of E. Sea bass fish culturing in marine water farm under the semi-intensive feeding system.

To evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of essential oils (EOs) of thyme, clove, and cinnamon to broiler chickens on growth performance, serum metabolites, and tissue lipid peroxidation and antioxidants enzyme activities. Design: Randomized controlled study Animals: One hundred-eighty, one-day-old Cobb broiler chicks were randomly allocated into 4 treatment groups (3 replicates, 15 chicks each). Broilers were reared in deep litter system -pens for 6 weeks of age. Procedures: The control group was fed on corn-soybean basal control diets (starter, grower and finisher) without EOs supplementation. In addition to the basal-control diets, the 3 experimental broiler groups were supplemented with thyme oil (2 nd group), clove oil (3 rd group) or cinnamon oil (4 th group) at 100 mg/kg. Blood, liver and muscle (breast) samples were collected from 3 broilers of each replicate at 40 days of age for measurement of serum metabolites, malondialdehyde (MDA), and antioxidant enzyme activities (liver catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). Results:The broiler chickens fed on the diets supplemented with 100 mg/kg cinnamon oil had significantly higher body weight, body weight gain and feed intake, followed by broiler chickens fed on the diets supplemented with 100 mg/kg thyme and 100 mg/kg clove oils in comparison with control group, which was showed the lowest growth performance. Supplementation with EOs significantly improved feed conversion ratio (FCR), with increased liver CAT, SOD, GSH-Px activities, as well as serum level of high density lipoprotein (HDL) in comparison with control group, also, it induced a significant decrease in serum levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, low density lipoprotein (LDL), as well as both liver and muscle tissue lipid peroxidation (MDA). Conclusion and clinical relevance:The present results indicate that dietary supplementation of EOs (thyme, clove, and cinnamon) at 100 mg/kg resulted in significantly higher body weight, body weight gain, improved FCR, reduced serum cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL. Also, reduced lipid peroxidation in liver and muscle, and improved antioxidants status of broiler chickens.

The present work was conducted to study the effects of feeding low crude protein diets (LCP-diets) with supplementation of threonine (Thr) on growth performance and immunocompetence in broiler chickens. One day old 264 Cobb chicks were divided into 6 equal groups (each of 4 replicates and each replicate was of 11 chicks). The 1 st group is considered the control one and fed normal basal control starter, grower and finisher diets containing the recommended levels of CP, threonine, methionine, lysine, tryptophan, valine, arginine and metabolizable energy as specified for Cobb500 broiler performance. The 2nd experimental group was fed ideal protein diets which were formulated to contain the minimum nutrient specifications based upon supplementing digestible essential amino acids (lysine, methionine, tryptophan, threonine, arginine, and valine). The other experimental chick groups (3 rd , 4 th , 5 th and 6 th groups) were fed isocaloric diets containing low levels of total dietary CP% (1 and 2% less than the minmum recommended CP%) with supplementation of Thr to 120 or 140% of the minimum recommended levels. The diets were isocaloric (3035, 3108 and 3180 Kcal/kg for starter, grower and finisher diets respectively). All chicks were vaccinated against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) at day 14 of age through eye drops. Growth performance indices (body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio) were measured. Blood samples were collected from the broilers at 14, 21, 28 and 35 days of age to determine the serum titre of antibodies against NDV using haemagglutination inhibition test (HI). At 42 days of age, blood samples were collected for determination of serum metabolites and 12 chickens from each group were slaughtered to obtain some of the carcass traits.The results revealed that BW and FCR of the broilers fed 2% LCP-diets with 120 or 140% Thr supplementation were significantly lowered than those fed control or ideal protein diets, as well as those fed 1% LCP-diets with Thr supplementation. There were no differences between the groups in dressed carcass percentages. The abdominal fat % in the carcass of the broiler chickens was not significantly affected by decreasing the dietary CP or supplementation of threonine. Liver weight% significantly increased with feeding the 2% LCP-diets. Feeding 2% LCP-diets also resulted in significant increase in serum uric acid and decreased serum total protein, albumin and globulin. The highest HI titer values and lowest serum levels of uric acid were observed in chickens fed ideal protein diets. While, chickens fed LCP-diets (-2%) had reduced HI titer values.From the present study, it could be concluded that the dietary protein level could be decreased by 1% of the recommended levels with threonine supplementation to 120 % of requirements with no adverse effects on body weight development, FCR, serum metabolites and immune competence in broiler chickens. Formulating broiler diets based upon digestible essential amino acids achieved optimal growth performanc...