Keywords
licorice
medicinal plant
hematology
serum lipid profile
How to Cite
Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the impact of dietary supplementation of licorice on growth performance, hematological, and biochemical parameters of broiler chickens. A local hatchery provided 192 one-day-old broiler chicks (Cobb500), which were randomly allocated into four dietary treatments. Each treatment was divided into four replicates, with each replicate containing 12 chicks housed in ground pens. The diet was supplemented with licorice powder (Glycyrrhiza galabra) at 0.0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, and 0.75%. The birds were provided with unrestricted access to food and water throughout the experiment. On day 42 nd , blood samples were collected randomly from one bird in each replicate of dietary treatments. The results showed that broilers fed a diet supplemented with licorice powder experienced a significant improvement (p < 0.05) in body weight gain and feed conversion ratio compared to the control group. Nevertheless, the results also revealed that supplementation of licorice powder considerably decreased (p < 0.05) glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein and elevated high density lipoprotein, total protein, globulin and lowered albumin/globulin ratio, aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase, in comparison with the control group. In conclusion, the proportion of 0.75% licorice powder in the diet resulted in an improvement in growth performance and health status
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