Efficacy of Rumex nervosus leaves or Cinnamomum verum bark as natural growth promoters on the growth performance, immune responsiveness, and serum biochemical profile of broiler chickens

Figures & data

Table 1. The nutritional matrix of the control diet for the starter (1–21 d) and finisher (21–34 d) phases of broilers.

Ingredient	Period
	Starter	Finisher
Yellow corn	53.22	58.09
Soybean meal	37.85	32.15
Wheat bran	2.00	2.20
Corn gluten meal	1.40	0.00
Choline chloride CL 60	0.05	0.05
Corn oil	1.50	4.20
Dicalcuim phosphate DCP	1.98	1.62
Ground limestone	0.90	0.79
Salt	0.40	0.30
DL-methionine	0.29	0.25
Lysine-HCL	0.21	0.11
Vitamin–mineral premix^a	0.20	0.20
Total	100.00	100.00
Metabolic energy, kcal/kg	3200.00	3200.00
Crude protein, %	23.00	20.00
Non phytate P, %	0.48	0.41
Calcium, %	0.96	0.81
Lysine, %	1.28	1.06
Sulphur amino acids, %	0.95	0.83
Threonine, %	0.86	0.71

^aVitamin-mineral premix comprises the following per kg: 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 ‘butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) + butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)’, 50,000 mg; B9, 2200 mg; B12, 17 mg; vitamin A, 12,000,000 international unit (IU); vitamin D3, 5,000,000 IU; vitamin E, 80,000 IU; vitamin K3, 3200 mg; copper, 16,000 mg; iron, 20,000 mg; iodine, 1250 mg; manganese, 120,000 mg; zinc, 110,000 mg; and selenium, 300 m. The basal diet supplemented with 1, 3, 5 g/kg diet Rumex nervosus leaves; 0, 2, 4, and 6 g/kg cinnamon; and antibiotic growth promoter ‘Colimox’ on top of feed.

Table

1	Negative Control Mean	$\frac{NC1\mathrm{ }A\left(650\right)+NC2\mathrm{ }A\mathrm{ }(650)}{2}=\mathit{NCx}\mathrm{‾}$
2	Positive Control Mean	$\frac{PC1\mathrm{ }A\left(650\right)+PC2\mathrm{ }A\mathrm{ }(650)}{2}=\mathit{PCx}\mathrm{‾}$
3	S/P Ratio	$\frac{\mathit{Sample}\mathrm{ }\mathit{Mean}-\mathit{NCx}\mathrm{‾}}{\mathit{PCx}\mathrm{‾}-\mathrm{ }\mathit{NCx}\mathrm{‾}}=S/P$
4	Titre – Relates S/P at a 1: 500 dilution to an endpoint titre:	Log10 Titre = 1.09 (log10 S/P) + 3.36

Table 2. Average body weight, average daily gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio (feed: gain) of birds fed control and treatment diets during starter^#, finisher^ϒ, and overall^ϒ period.

Parameters	Body weight (g/bird/day)			Gain (g/bird/day)			Feed intake (g/bird/day)			Feed conversion ratio (g:g)
Treatments (g/kg diet)	1	21	34	Starter d 1–21	Finisher d 22–34	Overall d 1–34	Starter d 1–21	Finisher d 22–34	Overall d 1–34	Starter d 1–21	Finisher d 22–34	Overall d 1–34
T1 (1 RNL^a)	45.77	807.08	1941.56	36.25	85.04	55.76	40.95	130.37	75.14	1.12^ab	1.54	1.35
T2 (3 RNL)	45.67	812.15	1865.00	36.50	80.99	53.51	40.95	125.75	73.37	1.12^ab	1.55	1.37
T3 (5 RNL)	45.78	814.65	1876.96	36.61	81.72	53.86	41.78	127.94	74.72	1.14^ab	1.57	1.39
T4 (2 CVB^b)	45.75	828.88	1863.76	37.29	79.61	53.47	39.02	131.72	74.46	1.05^b	1.65	1.39
T5 (4 CVB)	45.66	766.20	1750.44	34.31	75.71	50.14	40.25	125.33	72.78	1.17^a	1.66	1.45
T6 (6 CVB)	45.69	789.74	1766.32	35.43	75.12	50.61	40.71	122.74	72.07	1.15^ab	1.63	1.42
T7 (AGP^c)	45.66	838.15	1942.15	37.74	89.07	55.78	44.26	131.25	77.52	1.17^a	1.47	1.39
T8 (NC^d)	45.70	780.47	1800.27	34.99	80.23	51.60	42.05	122.95	72.98	1.20^a	1.53	1.41
T9 (PC^e)	45.69	793.42	1783.48	35.61	76.16	51.11	42.12	125.47	73.99	1.18^a	1.65	1.45
SEM±^f	0.02	7.85	50.66	0.37	2.85	1.49	0.49	3.37	1.67	0.01	0.02	0.01
Probability	0.75	0.10	0.07	0.10	0.11	0.07	0.13	0.45	0.49	0.04	0.63	0.67

^aRNL: Rumex nervosus leaves.

^bCVB: Cinnamomum verum bark.

^cAGP: antibiotic growth promoter ‘Colimox’.

^dNC: negative control group = basal diet only, no vaccinated.

^ePC: positive control group = basal diet only, vaccinated.

^fSEM, standard error of mean.

^#Mean of ten replicates per treatment.

^ϒMean of 10 and 5 replicates per treatment during starter and finisher; respectively.

^a,bMeans in the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (p < .05).

Table 3. Relative lymphoid organ weights at 34 d of birds fed control and treatment diets.

TRT	Live weight	Bursa%	Spleen%	Thymus%
T1 (1 RNL^a)	1795^#	0.16	0.10	0.41
T2 (3 RNL)	1801	0.14	0.11	0.35
T3 (5 RNL)	1794	0.23	0.11	0.43
T4 (2 CVB^b)	1816	0.19	0.11	0.49
T5 (4 CVB)	1777	0.19	0.08	0.52
T6 (6 CVB)	1752	0.24	0.08	0.55
T7 (AGP^c)	1832	0.20	0.09	0.43
T8 (NC^d)	1759	0.21	0.08	0.42
T9 (PC^e)	1667	0.18	0.09	0.40
SEM±^f	24.01	0.009	0.005	0.018
Probability	0.912	0.235	0.448	0.781

^aRNL: Rumex nervosus leaves.

^bCVB: Cinnamomum verum bark.

^cAGP: antibiotic growth promoter ‘Colimox’.

^dNC: negative control group = basal diet only, no vaccinated.

^ePC: positive control group = basal diet only, vaccinated.

^fSEM: standard error of mean.

^#Mean of five birds per treatment.

Table 4. Humoral immune responses (log₁₀ antibody titres) against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), Newcastle disease virus (NDV), and infectious bursal disease (IBDV) on days 21 and 34 in birds fed control and treatment diets.

	Antibody titres at d 21^#			Antibody titres at d 34^♣
Treatments (g/kg diet)	IBV	NDV	IBDV	IBV	NDV	IBDV
T1 (1 RNL^1)	3.00	3.16	2.98	3.04	3.25^a	2.20^a
T2 (3 RNL)	3.20	3.05	2.87	3.04	3.48^a	2.44^a
T3 (5 RNL)	3.18	3.18	2.75	2.80	3.28^a	2.40^a
T4 (2 CVB^2)	3.25	3.13	2.94	3.15	3.59^a	2.14^a
T5 (4 CVB)	3.23	3.06	2.94	3.03	3.45^a	2.29^a
T6 (6 CVB)	3.08	3.09	2.66	2.93	3.43^a	1.97^ab
T7 (AGP^3)	2.95	3.12	3.13	2.89	3.45^a	1.62^ab
T8 (NC^4)	3.05	2.81	2.71	2.93	1.62^b	1.26^b
T9 (PC^5)	3.16	2.93	2.88	2.98	2.72^a	2.02^ab
SEM±^6	0.027	0.033	0.046	0.027	0.140	0.094
Probability	0.189	0.147	0.342	0.214	0.001	0.017

¹ RNL: Rumex nervosus leaves. ²CVB: Cinnamomum verum bark, ³AGP: antibiotic growth promoter 'Colimox’, ⁴NC: negative control group = basal diet only, no vaccinated. ⁵PC: positive control group = basal diet only, vaccinated; ⁶SEM, standard error of the mean for the effect of treatments; ^#,♣mean of ten and five birds per treatment at day 21 and 34 days, respectively; ^a,bMeans in the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (p < .05).

Table 5. Serum biochemical parameters at d 21 of birds fed control and treatment diets.

Treatments (g/kg diet)	TP (g/dL)	Albumin (g/dL)	Globulin (g/dL)	Glucose (mg/dL)	Cholesterol (mg/dL)	Creatinine (mg/dL)	ALT (U/L)	AST (U/L)
T1 (1 RNL^1)	4.02^#	2.20	1.82	263.44	112.03	0.61^a	13.37	149.03
T2 (3 RNL)	3.96	2.09	1.87	247.11	119.76	0.51^ab	17.93	151.71
T3 (5 RNL)	4.50	2.43	2.07	273.89	130.12	0.56^ab	16.04	152.01
T4 (2 CVB^2)	4.14	2.34	1.80	244.86	134.51	0.55^ab	13.02	149.71
T5 (4 CVB)	4.15	2.39	1.76	270.67	133.61	0.50^ab	19.65	148.94
T6 (6 CVB)	4.31	2.16	2.15	250.89	130.03	0.36^b	16.73	151.26
T7 (AGP^3)	4.30	2.26	2.04	269.33	141.29	0.47^ab	15.67	186.87
T8 (NC^4)	3.27	1.74	1.53	280.56	135.05	0.63^a	16.02	144.85
T9 (PC^5)	3.77	2.35	1.42	251.78	138.20	0.59^ab	15.94	147.96
SEM±^6	0.10	0.09	0.09	4.37	3.21	0.03	0.66	3.89
Probability	0.177	0.11	0.44	0.46	0.51	0.02	0.40	0.31

¹ RNL: Rumex nervosus leaves. ²CVB: Cinnamomum verum bark, ³AGP: antibiotic growth promoter ‘Colimox’, ⁴NC: negative control group = basal diet only, no vaccinated. ⁵PC: positive control group = basal diet only, vaccinated; ⁶SEM, standard error of the mean for the effect of treatments; ^#mean of ten birds per treatment. TP: Total protein; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; AST: Aspirate aminotransferase.

Table 6. Serum biochemical parameters at d 34 of birds fed control and treatment diets.

Treatments (g/kg diet)	TP (g/dL)	Albumin (g/dL)	Globulin (g/dL)	Glucose (mg/dL)	Cholesterol (mg/dL)	Creatinine (mg/dL)	ALT (U/L)	AST (U/L)
T1 (1 RNL^1)	2.80^#	1.50	1.30	184.3^c	92.1	0.53	13.52^b	130.53
T2 (3 RNL)	3.59	1.85	1.74	188.5^bc	85.5	0.63	10.61^bc	133.39
T3 (5 RNL)	3.70	1.89	1.81	236.0^ab	83.7	0.46	8.01^c	85.09
T4 (2 CVB^2)	3.36	2.05	1.31	170.4^c	105.0	0.50	8.86^c	110.63
T5 (4 CVB)	3.52	1.88	1.64	196.3^abc	104.1	0.44	9.81^c	54.38
T6 (6 CVB)	2.94	1.55	1.39	210.0^abc	109.1	0.44	9.51^c	127.08
T7 (AGP^3)	3.91	2.18	1.73	239.0^a	95.2	0.69	11.27^bc	114.46
T8 (NC^4)	3.21	1.64	1.57	232.6^ab	113.3	0.51	17.39^a	139.70
T9 (PC^5)	2.82	1.47	1.35	207.2^abc	114.9	0.51	18.25^a	133.88
SEM±^6	0.11	0.08	0.06	7.62	2.99	0.03	0.62	7.21
Probability	0.14	0.39	0.304	0.02	0.07	0.28	<.0001	0.07

¹ RNL: Rumex nervosus leaves. ²CVB: Cinnamomum verum bark, ³AGP: antibiotic growth promoter ‘Colimox’, ⁴NC: negative control group = basal diet only, no vaccinated. ⁵PC: positive control group = basal diet only, vaccinated. ⁶SEM, standard error of mean for the effect of treatments. ^#Mean of five birds per treatment; ^a,b,cMeans in the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (p < .05). TP: total protein; ALT: alanine aminotransferase; AST: aspirate aminotransferase.