Effects of Dietary Addition of Wormwood (Artemisia sp.) on the Growth Performance, Nutrients Utilization, and Abdominal Fat Deposition of Broiler Chickens

초록

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of wormwood (Artemisia sp.) addition on the growth performance, nutrients utilization and abdominal fat deposition of broiler chickens. Two hundred twenty five and two-day old Arboracre strain male commercial broiler chicks were distributed to 5 treatments with wormwood supplementation levels; C(0%), T1 (1%), T2 (3%), T3 (5%), and T4 (10%) and with 3 replications each with 5 birds for five weeks. Body weight gain during the experiment was improved in T1 (1723.0g) compared with that of T3 (1557.7g) and T4 (1450.7g) (P<0.05). Feed intake was significantly (P<0.05) increased as the levels of wormwood addition increased (C: 2653.8g, T1: 2852.0, T2: 2900.3, T3: 2900.7g, T4: 2954.7g). Feed conversion rate (feed/gain) was significantly (P<0.05) increased as the levels of wormwood addition increased (C: 1.55, T1: 1.66, T2: 1.70, T3: 1.86, T4: 2.04). The days reaching to 2.0kg of body weight were expected to be 43.2 days in control, whereas those of group T1 were reduced to 42.6 days by 0.6 day from control. Nutrient utilization and abdominal fat deposition in the experiment were significantly decreased (P<0.05) and small intestine contents in the broilers was significantly increased (P<0.05) as the levels of wormwood addition increased. Therefore, although there was no significant improvement for the performance of broiler chickens with the dietary supplementation of wormwood meal, less than 1% addition of wormwood to broiler diets might have beneficial for human health by reducing the abdominal fat deposition of the broiler chickens.

키워드