Reactions of Modern Broiler Chickens to Administration of Cinnamon Powder in the Diet

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to study the responses on productive performance, carcass characteristics and plasma constituents of modern broiler chicks to administration of cinnamon powder (CP) in the diet. Commercial breeds (Ross 308) of broiler chicks examined from 1 to 42 days of age. This experiment was conducted as a completely randomized design with 5 treatments and four replicates (15 chickens per pen) involving: 1) control diet (basal diet); 2) basic diet plus CP 0.25%; 3) basic diet plus CP 0.50%; 4) basic diet plus CP 0.75% and 5) basic diet plus CP 1.0%. The addiction of CP to the diets of broiler chicks had no significant effects (P>0.05) on cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoproteins (LDL), abdominal fat, gizzard and heart weights and on breast protein percentage. However, the administration of CP had significant effects (P<0.05) on final body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), liver weight, glucose level, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) and breast fat percentage of broiler chicks. The highest (P<0.05) FCR and body weight gains were observed with diet 3 at the end of the experiment. In general, the addiction of CP to the diet of broiler chicks improved body weight and decreased the TBA, glucose, LDL and weight of some inner organs. Taking into account the results mentioned before, the use of CP can be proposed as an ingredient for broiler diets.