Effects of Salicornia herbacea on Growth Performance, Meat Quality, Excreta Microbial Populations, and Noxious Gas Emissions in Broiler Chicks

The current study was conducted to evaluate the effects of adding Salicornia herbacea extracts to the drinking water on the growth performance, meat quality, excreta microbial population, and noxious gas emission in broiler chicks. A total of 544 one-day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were used in a 35-d experiment. Broiler chicks were allocated to four treatments with eight replicates, based on a completely randomized design. Diet was the same for all treatments, but a liquid phytogenic supplementation using different quantities of S. herbacea was provided in the drinking water as follows: control (CON), with no S. herbacea; 1 cc/L S. herbacea (SAL1); 5 cc/L S. herbacea(SAL2); and 10 cc/L S. herbacea (SAL3). During d 22–35, and d 1–35, broilers supplemented with S. herbacea extracts had a higher body weight gain (BWG) compared with the broilers in the CON group (P<0.05), but broilers supplemented with S. herbacea extracts had a lower feed conversion ratio (FCR) when compared with broilers in the CON group (P<0.05). Supplementation with S. herbacea extracts had linear effects on the abdominal fat and the redness (a*) of meat (P<0.05). There were no significant differences between excreta microbial populations and excreta noxious gas emissions in broilers in the CON group, or broilers supplemented with S. herbacea extracts. In conclusion, the results of this study demonstrate that S. herbacea supplementation positively affected the growth performance and meat quality in broilers, indicating that S. herbacea can be safely used to replace antibiotic as a growth promoter, thereby reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance issues.