Intestinal integrity of broiler chickens supplemented with essential oils and butyric acid as performance-enhancing additives to replace antibiotics

Abstract

Alternative additives to growth promoting antibiotics can improve the health of the gastrointestinal tract of broilers by modulating the microbial population and improving nutrient utilization. Therefore, the objective of this study will be to evaluate the combination of essential oils (cinnamaldehyde, carvacrol, thymol) and butyric acid on intestinal morphometry and organ weight of broiler chickens challenged with coccidiosis vaccine. Therefore, a study will be carried out with 900 male broilers, one day old, distributed in DIC, with six treatments of five similar pens: T1 - non-challenged birds, basal diet (DB) (corn-soy based diet) ; Birds challenged with T2 (C), BD; T3-C, BD with inclusion of avilamycin; T4-C, BD with inclusion of cinnamaldehyde, carvacrol and thymol; T5-C, BD with inclusion of butyric acid glycerides; T6-C, BD with inclusion of cinnamaldehyde, carvacrol and thymol + butyric acid glycerides. At 14 days of age, chicks (T2 to T6) will be orally challenged with a vaccine against coccidiosis. At 21 and 35 days of age, fragments of duodenum and jejunum will be collected for morphometric analysis and data on organ weight, length of small and large intestines and pH of intestinal contents will be obtained. Data will be submitted to ANOVA using the GLM method and, when there is a significant effect, the means will be compared using Tukey's test with 5% significance.