The Effect of Ferulaassa-Foetida Gum Powder Compare to Antibiotic on Performance, Microbial Population and Intestinal Morphology in Broiler Chickens

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different levels of Ferulaassafoetida gum powder and antibiotic on performance, intestine morphology and microbial population in broiler chicks. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design with 240 chicks in 5 treatments, 4 replicates and 12 chicks per replicate. Treatments included: 1) basal diet without additives, 2) basal diet containing 100 mg per kg of antibiotics Avilamycin.3, 4 and 5) basal diet contain 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 Ferula assa-foetida gum powder, respectively. The results showed that in whole experiment period, treatment fed antibiotic had the highest body weight (P<0.05). Feed intake was not affected by treatments. The best feed conversion in whole period was related to antibiotic group. The lowest number of coliform bacteria was related to treatments were fed with Ferula assa-foetida. The highest number of Lactobacillus were seen, in 0.2 and 0.1 percent Ferula assa-foetida treatments respectively that had significantly different with other treatments except control (P<0.01). The highest ratio of villus length to crypt depth has found for 0.2 percent of Ferula assa-foetida and control group.