Abstract

A farm study was carried out to evaluate the inclusion of a commercially available blend of herbal essential oils (Provital) and an organic acid (Totacid) on productive performance and economical efficiency of broiler chickens. A total of 31,800 day old straight run broiler chickens (Ross 308) were allocated to three experimental treatments in three houses (10,600 birds per each) in a commercial farm for 50 days. Dietary treatments were a diet with no additive as control and diets containing 1 g/kg provital (A mixture of essential oils) or 1 g/kg Totacid. Birds fed on diets containing Provital and Totacid had numerically higher body weight than control and consumed lower feed. Inclusion of Provital and Totacid decreased feed conversion ratio noticeably and caused a noticeable reduction in mortality. Financial analysis showed that supplementation of diet with these additives increased return to investments and the returns were 18 and 10 times more than costs for Provital and Totacid, respectively. In conclusion, results of the present study showed that Provital and Totacid could be effective in enhancing broiler performance and the cost of adding them into the diet is very lower than the returns.

Key words: Broiler, essential oil, organic acid, provital, totacid.