Effect of a specific combination of carvacrol, cinnamaldehyde, and on the growth performance, carcass quality and gut integrity of broiler chickens Capsicum oleoresin

In view of rising concerns on the extensive use of antibiotics in animal production, there is an increasing interest for developing alternative disease control strategy to enhance animal health and to reduce the use of antimicrobials. One promising new possibility to achieve this goal is the use of natural herbal products to enhance feed efficiency, gut health, and innate immunity [1, 2]. The American Medical Association urged that the use of antimicrobial growth promoters (AGP) in animals should be terminated [3]. Consequently, many governments around the world are banning or severely limiting the use of antibiotics at non-therapeutic levels. All AGP have been banned in the European Union (EU) since the year 2006. Eventually, many other countries will have to follow these measures to export to the EU. Consequently, the poultry industry may be adversely affected by disease challenge and loss of production because of those restrictions [4]. The European ban on AGP use in animal and poultry nutrition has increased infections [5]. Raising poultry without antibiotics resulted in poor performance and enteritis that is economic problem [6] and animal welfare problem [7]. The challenge will be to fight microbial imbalances in young animals. Feed formulators need efficient alternatives to use as commodities. Consequently, natural alternatives concepts basedonnatural ingredients fornon-AGPandantibacterial action are highly commendable. These alternatives such as probiotics, prebiotics and acidifiers successfully been used by many investigators [8-11]. Herbal products and their oil extracts have been used for natural therapy as pharmaceuticals; however, only in recent years aromatic plants and their extracts were introduced to the animal feeding [12]. Further complications arise because herbal products and their oil extracts feed additives may vary widely with respect to botanical origin, processing, and composition. Most studies investigate blends of various active compounds and report the effects on production performance rather than the physiological impacts [13-15]. Several types of herbal products and their oil extracts have enhanced broiler performance and resulted in growth-promoting effects [13]. The proposed mode of action of herbal products is attributed to their antimicrobial properties [5, 14, 16, 17], antiviral [18], oxidative-resistant activity [15, 19], anti-inflammatory [5, 20], enhancement of the immune system [1, 2, 17] and other biological effects [14, 21, 22] and consequently, improvement in poultry performance. Veterinary World, EISSN: 2231-0916 Available at www.veterinaryworld.org/Vol.7/May-2014/3.pdf