The use of some herbal plants as effective alternatives to antibiotic growth enhancers in poultry nutrition

SUMMARY

Medicines derived from plant sources are called phytobiotics or botanical medicine. For therapeutic purposes different parts (flowers, fruits, roots, leaves, seeds, bark and berries) or whole plants are utilised. Phytobiotic feed additives can be defined as plants/herbs derived products added to the feed in order to improve the performance of animals. The improvement of performance of broiler and layer chickens as well as their product’s quality may be due to multi-directional effects by phytobiotics like decreasing gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbial population by direct antimicrobial effects or indirectly through increasing mucous secretion in the gut and inhibiting bacterial adhesion to cell membranes, modification of GIT bacterial population through the competitive exclusion of certain type of population and making environment favourable for others, stimulation of digestive secretions and improvement of nutrient absorption, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. This review highlights the description of some selected herbs and the potential application and health benefits of phytobiotics and their derived products in poultry nutrition.

KEYWORDS:

• Herbs
• phytobiotics
• antimicrobial
• immunity
• poultry

Acknowledgments

The authors extend thanks to their respected institutes and universities.

Animal welfare statement

No ethical approval was required as this is a review article with no original research data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Majid Rafeeq

Majid Rafeeq, Centre for advance studies in vaccinology and bacteriology, University Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan. He is working on poultry nutrition with special emphasis to use of non conventional herbs replacing antibiotics in poultry.

Rana Muhammad Bilal

Rana Muhammad Bilal, Department of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of veterinary and animal sciences, The Islamia University, Bahawalpur, Pakistan. He is working in both Ruminant and avian nutrition. His major field is use of probiotics specially yeast in animal nutrition. He is a reviewer for Iranian Journal of Applied Animal Science.

Mahmoud Alagawany

Mahmoud Alagawany is an assistant Professor of Poultry Nutrition at Zagazig University, Egypt. According to the classification of Stanford University, his name was listed in the list of Top 2% scientists (2019-2020). He is an associate editor of Frontiers in Physiology, Revista Electronica De Veterinaria and Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia. The author or coauthor of 13 book chapters, also he has been published 200 articles (research and review) since 2008.

Fiza Batool

Fiza Batool, Department of Forestry Wild life and Range, Faculty of Agriculture, The Islamia University, Bahawalpur, Pakistan, he is working in the field of game birds with respect to wild life conservation.

Kashif Yameen

Rao Muhammad Kashif Yameen, Department of Poultry University of Veterinary and Animal Science Lahore Pakistan is working in the field of poultry production. Mainly he is doing research on the use of different light source to raise birds health and performance keeping in view the economical poultry production.

Mayada R. Farag

Mayada R. Farag is an assistant Professor of Forensic and Toxicology at Zagazig University, Egypt. According to the classification of Stanford University, her name was listed in the list of Top 2% scientists (2019-2020). He is an editorial member of Advances in Animal and Veterinary Science.

Sher Ali

Sher Ali, Department of Meat Science and Technology, Faculty of Animal Production & Technology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, PAKISTAN is working on improvement of meat quality with respect to poultry (Ducks and broilers).

Shaaban S. Elnesr

Dr. Shaaban S. Elnesr is an Associate Professor of Poultry Physiology at Department of Poultry production, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University. His research interests are in poultry production, physiology, fertility, feed additives, metabolism, immunity, reproduction and sustainability. He published original and review articles in the best journals, as well as more chapters in international books. He is an editor and reviewer in many international journals.

Nahed A. El-Shall

Nahed El-Shall is an associate professor of poultry diseases in the department of poultry and fish diseases, faculty of veterinary medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt. She published original and review articles in the best journals in her study's field. Her latest articles are “Heterologous prime-boost vaccination programs against Newcastle disease virus genotype VII in chickens” and “Applications of recombinant proteins in aquaculture”. She is a peer reviewer for Scientific Reports, Biological trace elements research, Macedonian Veterinary review, and Alexandria Journal of veterinary Science. Her scientific interests include molecular characterization of avian diseases, efficacy assessment of various viral, bacterial and parasite vaccines, and herbal- and nano-medicine.