Role of medicinal mushroom on growth performance and physiological responses in broiler chicken

SUMMARY

Supplementing broiler diets with medicinal mushrooms is considered an effective alternative to prophylactic antibiotics. Feeding certain mushrooms may have beneficial effects on gut health in broilers, whereby trials have shown weight gain was increased about 5.2% when feeding 5% of the Hericium caput-medusae mushrooms in the diet. Both Salmonella spp. and E. coli numbers in the caecum were significantly lowered from 5.036 to 3.031 log₁₀ CFU/g and from 5.405 to 4.759 log₁₀ CFU/g when 50 g/kg or 30 g/kg of Flammulina velutipes mushrooms were included in feed, respectively, compared to an unsupplemented control group. Beneficial bacteria (Lactobacilli spp.) were found in significantly higher numbers (increased from 6.45 to 8.05 log₁₀ CFU/g) and Bifidobacter spp. (increased from 6.28 to 7.77 log₁₀ CFU/g of content) in the caecum of broilers fed 20 g/kg mushrooms (Agaricus biosporus) in feed. However, there is still disagreement in published articles on the dosages and mode of action of medicinal mushrooms in broilers. The following review covered the published trials investigating the uses of medicinal fungi on growth performance, meat quality and health status in broiler to date, and showed that supplementation with medicinal fungi may have a role on the immunity, health and growth performance in broiler.

KEYWORDS:

• Broiler
• growth performance
• immunity
• intestinal microbiology
• medicinal mushrooms

Acknowledgments

The author would like to express their sincere gratitude to the College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University (CAU), for financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31772612) for his postdoctoral study under Prof. Xiang Shu Piao.

Disclosure statement

There is no conflict of interest relevant to this publication.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [31772612]