Author(s)

Majid Kalantar¹, Seyed Mahdi Hosseini^2*, Liguo Yang², Sayed Haider Abbas Raza³, Linsheng Gui³, Mostafa Rezaie⁴, Mahdi Khojastekey¹, Dawei Wei³, Rajwali Khan³, Sulthattin Yasar⁵, Shahid Faraz Syed⁶, Allah Bux Kachiwal⁷, Mohamed Elkhairey³, Qijing Lei⁶, Rameez Raja Kaleri⁷, Ayman Hassan Abd El-Aziz⁸

¹Animal Science Department, Agricultural Research Center of Qom, Qom, Iran.
²The Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education, College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
³College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.
⁴Department of Animal Science, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University of Saveh, Saveh, Iran.
⁵College of Animal Science, Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey.
⁶College of Veterinary Medicine, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.
⁷Faculty of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Sciences, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, Pakistan.
⁸Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Damanhour University, Damanhūr, Egypt.

Numbers of 300 day-old broiler chickens through a CRD design with 5 treatments, 3 replicates and 20 chicks in each pen were used to evaluate the effect of thyme (T), licorice (L), thyme + licorice (TL), and enzyme supplemented (E) diets on performance, immune and carcass characteristics. According to the results, performance traits, immune indices, and carcass traits in herbal medicine and enzyme supplemented diets were improved significantly than control diet (P < 0.05). Weight gain and FCR in T and E groups were significantly higher and lower than other groups respectively (P < 0.05). Internal organs such as abdominal fat and liver weight as indicators of lipogenesis rate were decreased in T, L, and TL diets than control or E diet significantly (P < 0.05). Immune organs such as burse and spleen weight as indicators of immune situation were increased in TL diet than other treatments significantly (P < 0.05). These findings indicated that thyme and licorice singly or in combination as organic herbal medicine can affect performance, carcass and immune characteristics. Also an improved immune organ such as burse or spleen in this study indicates that this herbal medicine can promote the immune situation and efficacy of health and livability.

Broiler, Enzyme, Licorice, Thyme

Kalantar, M. , Hosseini, S. , Yang, L. , Abbas Raza, S. , Gui, L. , Rezaie, M. , Khojastekey, M. , Wei, D. , Khan, R. , Yasar, S. , Syed, S. , Kachiwal, A. , Elkhairey, M. , Lei, Q. , Kaleri, R. and Abd El-Aziz, A. (2017) Performance, Immune, and Carcass Characteristics of Broiler Chickens as Affected by Thyme and Licorice or Enzyme Supplemented Diets. Open Journal of Animal Sciences, 7, 105-109. doi: 10.4236/ojas.2017.72009.