Effect of garlic, thyme and yogurt compared to antibiotics on performance, immunity and some blood parameters of broiler chickens

Abstract

The authorities banned many growth promotors, as the overuse of commercial antibiotics leads to danger of losing bacterial resistance. In this study, we tried to investigate the effect of garlic, thyme and yogurt on broilers compared to antibiotics. Arbor Acres chickens (300) were divided into 5 groups with 3 repetitions. First group as control group received only basal diet, second group was treated by 0.5 g/kg flavophospholipol as antibiotic growth promoter, third group was treated by 1 g/kg garlic powder, the fourth group received 1 g/kg thyme powder and the fifth group was fed by basal diet plus 5 g/kg yogurt. All the other conditions were the same for all the groups. After 49 days of treatment performance, immunity system and some blood parameters were measured. There were significant differences in garlic, thyme and antibiotic groups with control and yogurt groups in body weight gain, feed conversion ratio from performance, antibody titre, heterophils / lymphocytes ratio, albumin from immune system, and triglyceride from blood parameters. Cholesterol level was lower in garlic and thyme groups. Yogurt showed numerically improvements in some factors. According to the results, garlic and thyme can be used as a good alternative for commercial antibiotics.