Can Yucca schidigera Be Used to Enhance the Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Gut Histomorphology, Cecal Microflora, Carcass Characteristic, and Meat Quality of Commercial Broilers Raised under Tropical Conditions?

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The broiler industry is a rapidly growing industry, particularly in developing countries, which provides a cheap source of protein via short production cycles. Despite improvements in the broiler industry, it faces several challenges such as high feed production cost, land availability, disease outbreaks, coping with rapid technology advancements, and adherence to continuous government policy change. The conditions often worsen in the tropical regions as high temperatures cause heat stress in broilers leading to negative effects on feed consumption, feed efficiency, growth rate, and mortality, resulting in a large economical loss in commercial poultry farms. As a result, any disruptions such as poor growth rate and disease outbreak could potentially harm the supply and demand, which will ultimately affect the food security of a country. Therefore, the use of antibiotics in feed has been found to increase feed efficiency and growth performance significantly in the poultry industry. Owing to the development of antimicrobial resistance in humans and livestock, the interest in using phytobiotics in veterinary medicine as an alternative to antibiotic feed additives in poultry diets is increasing. ABSTRACT: This study aims to study the effect of Yucca shidigera as a phytobiotic supplementation in enhancing the production performance of commercial broilers reared under tropical environments. A total of 300 male day-old Ross 308 broiler chicks were randomly allocated into six treatment groups. Treatment 1 broilers were fed with commercial diets without antibiotics. Treatment 2 broilers were fed with commercial diets added with 100 mg/kg oxytetracycline antibiotic. Treatment 3, 4, 5, and 6 were fed with the same commercial diets added with 25, 50, 75, and 100 mg/kg Y. shidigera, respectively, without antibiotic. Throughout the six weeks study period, body weight and feed intake were recorded weekly for each replicate to calculate the body weight gain and feed conversion ratio. In addition, the nutrient digestibility, gut histomorphology, cecal microflora population, carcass characteristics, and meat quality were determined. The results showed significant differences (p < 0.05) in the growth performance, apparent ileal nutrient digestibility, gut histomorphology, carcass traits, and meat quality. Overall, T6 broilers supplemented with 100 mg/kg Y. shidigera demonstrated the best production performances as compared to the other treatment broilers. In summary, information from this study will be valuable for the usability of Y. schidigera, which could be developed as a feed additive to replace antibiotics in the poultry sector in the tropics.