Effect of purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) extract on the performance, cellular and humoral immune responses of broiler chicks

Roostaei-Ali Mehr, M; Ghahremani-Zahraee, B; Haghighian-Roudsari, M

Effect of purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) extract on the performance, cellular and humoral immune responses of broiler chicks

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

The experiment was conducted by using of 240 day old broilers cob with an average live weight of 44.6 g to determine the effect of of purple coneflower extract on the performance and immune reponses. The extract of purple coneflower containing 2.99 mg/ml caffeic acid was added in the levels of zero control group (E_zero), 0.5 (E_0.5), 1 (E₁), 1.5 (E_1.5), 2 (E₂) and 2.5 (E_2.5) ml/l to drinking water from day 6 to 42. Cellular immune responses were assayed by PHA-P injection in the skin fold of wings and thickness of skin were measured after 24 and 48h. A 25% SRBC suspension were injected in the breast muscle to investigate humoral immune responses, and titers IgG and IgM anti SRBC was determined by haemagglutination test. Results indicated that the using 1≥ 1ml of purple coneflower extract improved daily live weight gain and feed conversion ratio (p<0.05). Treatment E₁ gained the highest daily live weight (67.98) and the lowest feed conversion ratio (1.54). The using of purple coneflower extract improved cellular immune responses and IgG titer against SRBC (p<0.05). The highest of IgG titer against SRBC and cellular immune response were achieved by using 2.5 ml extract (p<0.05). Treatment E_2.5 had the highest burs and thymus percentage weight (p<0.05). Overall results showed that continuous use of 1 ml of extract/l of drinking water of broiler chicks caused to improve performance and immune responses.

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