Influence of different levels of humic acid and esterified glucomannan on growth performance and intestinal morphology of broiler chickens

Abstract

A study was under taken to investigate the effect of dietary supplementations of humic acid and esterified glucomannan) on broiler performance and the morphological measurements of small intestine. Two hundred and ten day old broiler chicks were weighed and randomly assigned to seven treatment groups in triplicate. The dietary treatments included T1) control (basal diet without any additives), T2) basal diets supplemented with 0.1% humic acid, T3) basal diets supplemented with 0.2% humic acid, T4) basal diets supplemented with 0.3% humic acid, T5) basal diets supplemented with 0.1% esterified glucomannan, T6) basal diets supplemented with 0.2% esterified glucomannan and T7) basal diets supplemented with 0.3% esterified glucomannan. Different parameters including body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and morphology of small intestine were evaluated during six weeks of experimental period. According to the results, at the end of experimental period, the highest average BWG were recorded in T4 group (fed with 0.3% humic acid), compared to control (T1) and other experimental groups (p < 0.05). Where as, the highest body weight gain were observed during starter period in treatment 7 (fed with 0.3% esterified glucomannan) as compare to other experimental groups (p < 0.05). Statistically, feed intake remained unaffected during the experimental period in all the treatment groups. However, the lowest and the highest feed intake were observed numerically within treatments T4 and T1 with 4229.70 g and 4362.30 g, respectively. Addition of dietary supplements used in the study appeared to have significant effect on the morphology of the small intestine (jejunum mucosal development) of the broilers in different treatment groups. Compared to control group, the inclusion of either humic acid or esterified glucomannon decreased (p < 0.01) the crypt depth and increased villus height respectively (p < 0.05). More ever, the diet supplements with humic acid 0.3% (T4) decreased crypt depth compared to esterified glucomannan and control. The dietary supplementations resulted in an increase in the villus height of intestinal mucosa of broilers. The increase in the villus height was associated with improvement of growth performance for both humic acid and esterified glucomannan. Based on our results it appeared that humic acid and esterified glucomannan can be used as a growth promoter in broiler diets and they can improve the gut health too

The impact of the humic acid and phytobiotics on performance and carcass parameters of broiler chickens

“…The highest body weight on the 42. day of fattening was recorded in the first experimental group of chickens fed a diets containing only humic acids but the different treatments were not statistically significant. Our results are in agreement with Taklimi et al (2012) or Lala et al (2017) who likewise recorded significantly increased weight gain by adding of humic acid. Miloševic et al 2013reported that supplementation of 1.5% and 3.0% of garlic powder had significant positive effect of body mass (P <0.05).…”

Effect of the Addition of Humic Substances as Growth Promoter in Broiler Chickens Under Two Feeding Regimens

“…In rats supplemented with HS, higher nitrogen retention has also been observed [39]. Recently, in FA-fed broilers [40] higher activities of the digestive enzymes amylase, lipase, and protease were reported, which agrees with the increased length of the mucosal villi of the jejunum and the increased gut length due to dietary inclusions of HS in broiler [12,41]. However, these findings do not agree with the lack of effects of EHS on nutrient use in our research.…”

Effect of Dietary Humic Acid Supplementation on Egg Production, Egg Quality and Fertility of Turkey Hens.

“…Similar results were reported by Hanafy and El-Sheikh (2008); Sahin et al (2011) and Taklimi et al (2012), who found that feed consumption was not affected significantly by humic acid supplementation.…”

“…However, hens in all treatment groups were significantly (P<0.05) heavier than the controls, being the heaviest in T3 at 52 wk of age. These results are in agreement with those reported by Hanafy and El-Sheikh (2008), who indicated that live body weight was significantly (P≤0.05) increased by age of laying hens as affected by humic acid supplementation.In this respect, several authors indicated that humic acid had a positive effect on live body weight of laying hens (Shermer et al, 1998), broilers (Ozturk et al, 2012;Taklimi et al, 2012;Mirnawati and Marlida, 2013) and Japanese quail (Abdel-Mageed, 2012).…”