Simeon RAKONJAC, Veselin PETRIČEVIĆ, Miloš LUKIĆ, Zdenka ŠKRBIĆ, Vladimir DOSKOVIĆ, Maja PETRIČEVIĆ, Aleksandar STANOJKOVIĆ

The effect of using rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) in broiler nutrition on production parameters, slaughter characteristics, and gut microbiological population

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the supplementation of different concentrations of rosemary in broilerdiets from day 1 to 42 on growth performance, carcass quality, and cecal microbiological composition of chickens. The research wascarried out with 1200 Ross 308 chickens, divided into 4 groups with 6 repetitions per group. The treatment groups were: controlgroup (C) without rosemary, 0.2% rosemary group (0.2R), 0.4% rosemary group (0.4R), and 0.6% rosemary group (0.6R). Productionparameters and the European Production Efficiency Factor (EPEF) were determined. At the end of the trial 12 chicks per group wereselected and euthanised in order to determine the slaughtering properties and for the microbiological analysis of the cecum contents.The obtained results showed that the use of rosemary in diets leads to increase in average daily gain, feed conversion, and EPEF value.The share of abdominal fat in carcasses was lower (P < 0.05) in the 0.4R and 0.6R groups. Lactobacilli count was found higher in the0.4R and 0.6R groups (P < 0.001) compared to the C group. These results demonstrate that addition of 0.4% rosemary powder to broilerfeed could have positive effects on the gain, feed conversion, fat deposition, and cecal microbiological composition. Further increase inthe amount of added rosemary had no additive effect in this research.

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