Effects Of Artemisia Argyi On Productive Performance And Immune Function In Broilers

The present experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of dietary Artemisia argyi on productive performance and immune function in broilers, so as to provide a theoretical reference for Artemisia argyi application in broilers. A total of 240 one-day-old Arbor Acres (AA) broilers were selected and assigned randomly to 5 treatments (0,0.25%, 0.5%,1% and 2% Artemisia argyi supplemented in diets) with 6 replicates (8 broilers per replicate). The feeding trial lasted for 42 d divided into earlier and latter periods, every period lasted for 21d. The results were shown as follows:1. With the increase of the addition of Artemisia argyi, the ADG showed a significant linear (P=0.008) or quadratic (P=0.013) increase during d 22-42; meanwhile a linear (P=0.012) and quadratic (P=0.012) increase during d 1-42, the GH showed a linear (P=0.047) increase during d 22-42.2. With the increase of the addition of Artemisia argyi, the apparent metabolic rate of crude protein showed a quadratic (P=0.040) increase during d 22-42.3. With the increase of the addition of Artemisia argyi, on d 21, the trypsin activities of jejunum showed a significant quadratic (P=0.009) increase, on d 42, the activities of trypsin (P=0.039) and lipase (P=0.019) and amylase (P=0.040) of jejunum increased quadratically, the chymotrypsin activities of ileum (P=0.061) also increased quadratically. On d 21, the VH of jejunum showed a quadratic (P=0.044) increase, on d 42, the VH/CD of duodenum showed a quadratic (P=0.086) increase, the VH of jejunum and ileum showed a linear (P=0.048) or quadratic (P=0.018) and quadratic (P=0.074) increase, the VH/CD of jejunum (P=0.063) and ileum (P=0.087) also increased quadratically.4. With the increase of the addition of Artemisia argyi, the L* values showed a significant linear (P=0.046) decrease,, whereas the a* values showed a significant linear (P=0.003) or quadratical (P=0.008) increase.5. With the increase of the addition of Artemisia argyi, the bursa of fabricius index tended to show a linear (P=0.093) increase on d 21 and the spleen index showed a linear (.P=0.035) or quadratic (P=0.080) increase on d 42. Moreover, Artemisia argyi supplementation linearly (P=0.020)or quadratically (P=0.071 increased IgM, and IgG also increased linearly (P=0.069) on d 21. These results suggested that:(1)Artemisia argyi could promote growth performance of broilers in two ways. One is through increasing growth hormone levels, and the other is by altering nutrients metabolisms which were improved by increased digestive enzyme activities and intestinal mucosal morphology; the 0.25% addition had the best ADG and the 0.5% addition had the best feed conversion ratio.(2)Artemisia argyi could decrease L* values and increase a* values to improve meat quality, and the 2% addition is the best in this experiment.(3)Artemisia argyi could improve the immune function by promoting the development of immune organs and increasing serum immunoglobulin, and the 2% addition is the best in this experiment.