Dietary Inclusion of Mushroom (Flammulina velutipes) Stem Waste on Growth Performance, Antibody Response, Immune Status, and Serum Cholesterol in Broiler Chickens

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The continued overuse of antibiotics in the poultry industry with the purpose of increasing production performance and health status has led to human health hazards. This research explores the use of medicinal mushrooms to get rid of antibiotics in poultry feed without affecting optimum performance. Most medicinal mushrooms contain biologically active substances such as polysaccharides, glycoproteins, and other macromolecules, which can serve as good dietary supplements and immuno-modulating agent in chickens. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the effect of Flammulina velutipes mushroom stem waste (MW) on Growth performance, antibody response, immune status, and serum cholesterol in broiler chickens. ABSTRACT: This study was carried out to investigate the effects of mushroom (Flammulina velutipes) stem waste (MW) on growth performance, antibody response, immune status, and serum cholesterol in broiler chickens. A total of 252 1 day old Arbor Acres (AA) male broiler chicks were randomly assigned into four treatments with seven replications of nine chicks each. The duration of experimental period was total 42 days. Dietary treatments includes a standard basal diet as negative control (NC) group; control diet with antibiotics (Chlortetracycline) considered as positive control (PC) group; 1% mushroom stem waste (MW) fed group; and 2% MW fed group. No significant differences (p > 0.05) was observed on average daily feed intake, body weight gain, and feed conversion ratio among experimental groups. Antibody titers against Newcastle disease (ND) and infectious bursal disease (IBD) were higher (p < 0.05) in 2% MW fed group than NC and PC fed groups. Serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) was higher (p < 0.05) in both levels of MW fed groups than in the NC and PC. Serum interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-6 (IL-6), were higher (p < 0.05) in 2% MW fed groups than in the NC and PC fed groups. Total cholesterol concentration was lower (p < 0.05) in both levels MW fed groups than in the NC. High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) was lower (p < 0.05) in both levels of MW fed groups than that of NC and PC fed groups. MW at 2% level can be used as potential phytogenic feed supplement in broilers.