Serum biochemistry indices, leukogram, carcass variables and intestinal measurements of Eimeria tenella-infected or non-infected broilers treated with dietary Cinnamomum verum bark

Figures & data

Table 1. Ingredients and calculated nutrients of broilers diet.

Ingredient	%
Yellow corn	58.09
Soybean meal	32.15
Wheat bran	2.2
Corn Gluten meal	0
Choline chloride CL 60	0.05
Corn oil	4.2
Dicalcuim Phosphate DCP	1.615
Ground Limestone	0.79
Salt	0.30
DL-methionine	0.25
Lysine-HCL	0.105
Vitamin – Mineral premix^a	0.200
Total	100
ME, kcal/kg	3200
Crude protein, %	20.0
Non phytate P, %	0.405
Calcium, %	0.81
D. Lysine, %	1.06
Sulfur amino acids, %	0.83
Threonine, %	0.71

^a The vitamin-mineral premix components per kg: vitamin A, 12,000,000 IU; vitamin D3, 5,000,000 IU; vitamin E, 80,000 IU; vitamin K3, 3200 mg; vitamin B1, 3200 mg; vitamin B₂, 8600 mg; vitamin B₃, 65,000 mg; pantothenic acid, 20,000 mg; vitamin B₆, 4300 mg; biotin 220 mg; antioxidant (BHA + BHT), 50,000 mg; B₉, 2200 mg; B₁₂, 17 mg; copper, 16,000 mg; iodine, 1250 mg; iron, 20,000 mg; manganese, 120,000 mg; selenium, 300 mg and zinc, 110,000 mg.

Table 2. Serum biochemical parameters of Eimeria tenella-infected and uninfected broiler chickens fed diets containing varying levels of Cinnamomum verum bark powder at 27 days of age (at 7 days post inoculation).

Treatment (TRT)	TP (g/dl)	Albumin (g/dl)	Globulin (g/dl)	Albumin: globulin ratio	Glucose (mg/dl)	Cholesterol (mg/dl)	Creatinine (mg/dl)	ALT (U/L)	AST (U/L)
TRT average
Control	3.70^aγ	1.27^a	2.43^a	0.65^c	237^bc	107	0.418	11.5^c	121
Sacox	2.63^b	1.04^b	1.60^b	0.97^bc	260^abc	120	0.425	11.9^c	125
2 g CNP	2.08^b	1.12^ab	0.96^b	1.27^ab	308^a	138	0.517	17.2^ab	139
4 g CNP	2.22^b	1.17^ab	1.05^b	1.59^a	287^ab	134	0.520	19.4^a	161
6 g CNP	2.51^b	1.29^a	1.22^b	1.42^ab	212^c	112	0.525	15.0^bc	139
SEM±^2	0.156	0.045	0.154	0.126	14.2	6.59	0.038	1.38	11.1
Challenge average
No	2.53	1.16	1.38	1.13	252	124	0.56^a	14.02	130
Yes	2.72	1.20	1.53	1.22	270	120	0.40^b	15.96	143
SEM±	0.156	0.045	0.154	0.126	14.2	6.59	0.038	0.874	6.98
P value
TRT	<0.001	0.095	0.001	0.014	0.035	0.172	0.525	<0.001	0.107
Challenge	0.397	0.544	0.495	0.617	0.369	0.679	0.007	0.311	0.357
TRT*Challenge	0.005	0.426	0.006	0.121	0.554	0.025	0.303	0.521	0.015

¹ The treatments were a basal diet alone (control), or a basal diet plus Cinnamomum verum bark (CNP) at doses of 2, 4 and 6 g/kg, or a basal diet plus 66 mg Sacox ‘Salinomycin’/kg, with half of the birds in each dietary group subjected or not to Eimeria tenella oocyst infection at 21 days. ²SEM, standard error of the mean; ^γMeans of ten birds per treatment ^abcMeans in the column with different superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.05).

Table 3. Leukogram of blood samples collected at 27 days of age from Eimeria tenella-infected and uninfected broiler chickens fed experimental diets.

Treatment^1 (TRT)	Heterophil	Lymphocyte	Eosinophils	Basophils	Monocytes	H:L Ratio
TRT average
Control	36.4^γ	55.2	4.00^b	1.30	3.30	0.67
Sacox	36.2	55.6	2.20^c	1.50	4.50	0.66
2 g CNP	35.7	54.9	4.20^ab	1.20	4.00	0.66
4 g CNP	36.7	52.6	5.10^a	1.70	3.90	0.71
6 g CNP	33.6	56.0	4.00^b	2.00	4.40	0.61
SEM±^2	1.08	1.22	0.332	0.308	0.333	0.033
Challenge average
No	35.2	55.6	3.40^b	1.56	4.24	0.64
Yes	36.2	54.1	4.40^a	1.52	3.80	0.68
SEM±	0.680	0.772	0.210	0.195	0.211	0.021
P value
TRT	0.275	0.331	<0.001	0.377	0.106	0.394
Challenge	0.324	0.161	0.002	0.885	0.148	0.235
TRT*Challenge	0.111	0.287	0.005	0.665	0.912	0.232

¹ The treatments were a basal diet alone (control), or a basal diet plus Cinnamomum verum bark (CNP) at doses of 2, 4 and 6 g/kg, or a basal diet plus 66 mg Sacox ‘Salinomycin’/kg, with half of the birds in each dietary group subjected or not to Eimeria tenella oocyst infection at 21 days. ²SEM, standard error of the mean; ^γMeans of 10 birds per treatment; ^abcMeans in the column with different superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.05). H:L Ratio: Heterophils: lymphocytes ratio.

Table 4. Cecal lesion score (0-4) and faecal oocyst output (Log₁₀ per g excreta) (at 7 days post infection) from Eimeria tenella-infected and uninfected broiler chickens fed experimental diets.

Treatment^1 (TRT)	Lesion score (points)	Oocyst output (Log10/g)
TRT average
Control	1.30^a	3.54^a
Sacox	0.40^c	3.19^b
2 g CNP	1.00^ab	3.39^ab
4 g CNP	0.80^bc	3.26^b
6 g CNP	0.70^bc	3.19^b
SEM±^2
Challenge average
No	0.00^b	0.00^b
Yes	1.68^a	6.62^a
SEM±	0.189	0.465
P value
TRT	0.005	0.033
Challenge	<0.001	<0.001
TRT*Challenge	0.005	0.033

¹ The treatments were a basal diet alone (control), or a basal diet plus Cinnamomum verum bark (CNP) at doses of 2, 4 and 6 g/kg, or a basal diet plus 66 mg Sacox ‘Salinomycin’/kg, with half of the birds in each dietary group subjected or not to Eimeria tenella oocyst infection at 21 days. ²SEM, standard error of the mean; ^γMeans of 10 birds per treatment; ^abcMeans in the column with different superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.05).

Table 5. Relative carcasses weights of Eimeria tenella-infected and uninfected broiler chickens fed diets containing varying levels of Cinnamomum verum bark powder at 27 days of age (at 7 days post inoculation).

Treatment^1 (TRT)	Dressing	Heart	Liver	Proventriculus	Gizzard	Bursa	Spleen	Thymus	Breast	Leg	FAT	Pancreas
TRT average
Control	65.8^γ	0.461	2.04	0.402^bc	2.37	0.175	0.076	0.361^b	27.4^a	19.5	0.488^b	0.269^ab
Sacox	65.6	0.489	1.83	0.384^c	2.30	0.184	0.090	0.409^ab	26.7^a	19.9	0.719^ab	0.233^b
2 g CNP	63.4	0.531	2.17	0.458^a	2.45	0.202	0.095	0.516^a	23.9^b	18.8	0.914^a	0.288^a
4 g CNP	64.2	0.515	1.91	0.449^ab	2.38	0.210	0.085	0.479^a	23.6^b	20.4	0.495^b	0.256^ab
6 g CNP	64.8	0.479	2.07	0.469^a	2.44	0.218	0.080	0.445^ab	24.9^ab	19.3	0.567^b	0.273^ab
Challenge average
No	66.3	0.513^a	2.01	0.429	2.33	0.212^a	0.088	0.481^a	25.9	20.2	0.701	0.276^a
Yes	63.2	0.477^b	2.00	0.436	2.45	0.183^b	0.083	0.403^b	24.6	19.0	0.573	0.251^b
SEM^2±	0.794	0.009	0.052	0.009	0.047	0.007	0.003	0.019	0.455	0.355	0.052	0.007
P value						P > F
TRT	0.853	0.103	0.240	0.007	0.813	0.214	0.374	0.056	0.019	0.677	0.025	0.057
Challenge	0.053	0.043	0.992	0.680	0.152	0.035	0.452	0.027	0.132	0.100	0.169	0.038
TRT*Challenge	0.284	0.480	0.202	0.079	0.008	0.493	0.644	0.196	0.492	0.964	0.115	0.180

¹ The treatments were a basal diet alone (control), or a basal diet plus Cinnamomum verum bark (CNP) at doses of 2, 4 and 6 g/kg, or a basal diet plus 66 mg Sacox ‘Salinomycin’/kg, with half of the birds in each dietary group subjected or not to Eimeria tenella oocyst infection at 21 days. ²SEM, standard error of the mean; ^γMeans of 10 birds per treatment; ^abcMeans in the column with different superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.05). FAT: abdominal fatty acids.

Table 6. Total and partial lengths and weights of the small intestine and intestinal relative weight of Eimeria tenella-infected and uninfected broiler chickens fed diets containing varying levels of Cinnamomum verum bark powder at 27 days of age (at 7 days post inoculation) (% of small intestine).

Treatment^1 (TRT)	Total	Total	Length (%)				Weight (%)				IRW
	Length (cm)	Weight (g)	Duodenum	Jejunum	Ileum	Ceca	Duodenum	Jejunum	Ileum	Ceca	% DW^#	% BW^¥
TRT average
Control	154^a	33.6^γ	15.8	42.5	41.7	18.2^b	18.9	44.7	36.4	23.4	4.78	3.13
Sacox	135^b	28.4	16.4	42.6	41	16.9^b	19.3	45.6	35.1	25.3	4.25	2.75
2 g CNP	149^a	31.9	15	42.2	42.8	19.5^ab	18.4	44.1	37.5	18.9	5.38	3.39
4 g CNP	150^a	34.3	16.8	40.1	43.1	21.6^a	20.7	42.6	36.7	20.3	5.61	3.59
6 g CNP	150^a	32.3	16.7	41.1	42.1	18.7^ab	19.8	41.9	38.3	23.7	4.99	3.23
SEM±^2
Challenge average
No	141^b	29.9^b	17.35^a	40.8^b	41.9	19.8	19.4	43.6	37	24.8^a	4.35^b	2.91^b
Yes	154 ^a	34.3^a	14.94^b	42.7^a	42.4	18.2	19.5	43.9	36.6	19.8^b	5.65^a	3.53^a
SEM±	2.25	0.957	0.374	0.389	0.364	0.542	0.418	0.587	0.651	0.947	0.195	0.123
P value
TRT	0.020	0.221	0.403	0.143	0.337	0.042	0.524	0.268	0.663	0.117	0.123	0.204
Challenge	0.002	0.011	0.001	0.01	0.487	0.103	0.892	0.808	0.756	0.009	<0.01	0.009
TRT*Challenge	0.037	0.033	0.385	0.298	0.142	0.073	0.912	0.685	0.779	0.994	0.75	0.258

¹ The treatments were a basal diet alone (control), or a basal diet plus Cinnamomum verum bark (CNP) at doses of 2, 4 and 6 g/kg, or a basal diet plus 66 mg Sacox ‘Salinomycin’/kg, with half of the birds in each dietary group subjected or not to Eimeria tenella oocyst infection at 21 days. ²SEM, standard error of the mean; ^γMeans of 10 birds per treatment; ^abcMeans in the column with different superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.05); ^#IRW (% DW), intestinal weight relative to dead or dressed carcass weight = total intestinal weight/ dressed carcass weight; ^¥IRW (% BW): intestinal weight relative to live bodyweight = total intestinal weight/ live body weight; Measurements of weight and length percentages of each part were calculated based on total weight and length of the small intestine.

Figure 1. The effect of dietary treatments and coccidial challenge on body weight gain of broiler chickens at 7th and 14th days post-infection. ^a-dDifferent superscript letters indicate statistical significant differences (P < 0.05) between groups.

Figure 2. The effect of dietary treatments and coccidial challenge on production efficiency factor of broiler chickens at 7th and 14th days post-infection. ^a-eDifferent superscript letters indicate statistical significant differences between groups (P < 0.05).

Table 7. Daily weight gain (DWG), daily feed intake (DFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and production efficiency factor (PEF) of Eimeria tenella-infected and uninfected broiler chickens fed diets containing varying levels of Cinnamomum verum bark powder at 27 and 34 days of age (at 7 and 14 days post inoculation ‘dpi’).

Treatment (TRT)	7 dpi				14 dpi
	DWG (g)	DFI (g)	FCR (g:g)	PEF	DWG (g)	DFI (g)	FCR (g:g)	PEF
TRT average
Control	69.7^γ	108^b	1.59^b	283	80.4^b	132	1.66	397^bc
Sacox	70.0	114^ab	1.66^ab	285	91.0^a	134	1.49	424^ab
2 g CNP	66.5	114^ab	1.74^ab	267	90.4^a	131	1.49	441^a
4 g CNP	67.4	121^a	1.81^a	247	82.9^ab	129	1.56	377^c
6 g CNP	69.1	111^b	1.61^b	280	78.2^b	125	1.62	361^c
SEM±	1.62	2.69	0.0513	12.5	2.98	2.61	0.0523	12.68
Challenge average
No	78.3^a	124^a	1.60^b	295^a	85.8	132	1.55	373^b
Yes	58.8^b	103^b	1.77^a	250^b	83.4	129	1.57	427^a
SEM±	1.03	1.70	0.0325	7.90	1.89	1.65	0.0331	8.02
P value
TRT	0.494	0.028	0.027	0.178	0.010	0.175	0.106	0.001
Challenge	<0.001	<0.001	0.001	0.001	0.374	0.347	0.623	<0.001
TRT*Challenge	0.001	0.529	0.044	0.015	0.020	0.029	0.154	0.003

¹ The treatments were a basal diet alone (control), or a basal diet plus Cinnamomum verum bark (CNP) at doses of 2, 4 and 6 g/kg, or a basal diet plus 66 mg Sacox ‘Salinomycin’/kg, with half of the birds in each dietary group subjected or not to Eimeria tenella oocyst infection at 21 days. ²SEM, standard error of the mean; ^γMeans of 10 replicates per treatment; ^abcMeans in the column with different superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.05).