Effects of verbascoside supplemented diets on growth performance, blood traits, meat quality, lipid oxidation and histological features in broiler chickens

Abstract

A trial has been performed to evaluate the effects of dietary verbascoside (VB) on the growth performance, blood traits, meat quality and histological features of broiler chickens. Seventy-two male broiler chickens (Ross 708) were divided into three experimental groups (8 replicates): a control group (C; basal diet), a low VB group (LVB; basal diet+2.5 mg VB/kg feed) and a high VB group (HVB; basal diet+5.0 mg VB/kg feed). The animals were kept in cages, three birds per cage. The trial lasted 35 days. Growth performance and carcass yield were recorded. Blood samples were collected at day 35 in order to evaluate the blood, serum and plasma parameters. As a result of this study, growth and slaughter performances were not affected by the dietary treatments. The LVB and HVB groups showed significantly lower concentrations of total protein (P=0.000), albumin (P=0.000),