Effect of using different levels of Dill seeds on performance , some blood biochemical and intestinal microbial population in Ross 308 broiler chicks

Background & Aim: Dill “Anethum graveolens” is an annual medical plantin the celery family “Apiaceae”. It is the sole species of the genus “Anethum”.The health advantages of dill seed include its ability to increasedigestive health, as well as providingrelief from insomnia, hiccups, diarrhea, dysentery, menstrual disorders, respiratory disorders, and cancer. This experiment aimed to determine the effects of using different levels of Dill seeds on performance, some blood biochemical parameters and intestinal microbial population in Ross 308 broiler chicks. Experimental: 300 one-day-old male broiler chickswere divided into the four treatments with six replicates and 15 birds each as randomized design. The treatments contained basal diet with no Dill seeds kept as control, and200,400 and 600 gof Dill seedsper each ton of diets respectively. The live bodyweightsgain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio of birdswere calculated weekly. At the end of the experimentfour male birdsform each replicates were slaughtered and dressing percentage were calculated. In addition, some carcass traits and chick’s visceral partwere weighed separately as percentage of carcass and some organs weight. Results: Data indicated that using Dill seeds increased feed intake (FI) in treatmentscompared to control.Alsobody weight (BW) (g/d) and Preslaughter weight (g) were higher in groups that werefed by dill seedscompared to the control. Additionally, therewere significant differences (p<0.05) for feed conversation ratio (FCR) among treatments. Recommended applications/industries: In conclusion, increasing levels of Dill seeds improved performance and some blood biochemical parametersof broilers chicks. Type: Original Research Topic: Medicinal Plants Received July 24 2016 Accepted December 16 2016


Introduction
Recently, considerable research has been done to explore some alternative to antibiotics as growth promoters (Jamroz, 1989;Cyberhorse, 1999).Herbal plants or its products including plant extracts, essences or the components of the essential oils hold promise as alternatives to antibiotics (Burger and Wachter, 1998).Many studies have been conducted to determine the efficacy of herbal on broilers performance.Because of the importance of poultries as an economic and nutritious form of animal protein and the fast growing traitsof this animal, researchers have devoted studies to the use of some herbal in avian (Jamroz et al., 2003).A series of medicinal and spicy herbs were used as additives, given as powder into the fodder, singular or mixed, either as aqueous, oily extracts or as essential oil (Rezaian, 2006).
Dill is called (Anethum graveolens) belongs to Apiaceae family and the only type of Anethum which is cultivated in some part of Iran.Its essence includes limonene and carron, which make more than90 percent of this essence.Based on the properties of Dill which prohibits raising up the level of cholesterol (Zheng et al., 1992 andBahramikia et al., 2009), anti-cancerous (Panda, 2008), anti-diabetes (Al-Ismail et al., 2004), and antioxidant (Satyanarayana et al., 2008), the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of using different levels of Dill (Anethumgraveolens) seeds on performance and some blood biochemical in Ross 308 broiler chicks.

Materials and Methods
The experiment was done at the Broiler farm of Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran.

Birds and the diets
A total of 300 one-day-old maleRoss 308 broiler chicks with an average weight of 39.50±50 g were divided intofourtreatments and also were subdivided intothe six replicates with 15 birds in each.Dill seeds werepurchased from a local market in Shahrekord, Iran and were grounded to obtain a fine and uniform powder.Additionally, soybean meal and corn grains were analyzed in the lab todetermine of dry matter, crude protein, calcium, phosphorus and its crude fiber withAssociation of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC, 2000) method.The basal diet was balanced based on corn and soybean meal as recommended by National Research Council (NRC, 1994) as shown in (table 1).The treatments were separated as basal diet with no drill seeds kept as control and 200, 400 and 600 g per ton, respectively.During this experiment, diets and fresh water were provided adlibitum.The live body weight gains, feed intake andfeed conversion ratio of birds were calculated weekly.

Investigation of the carcass characteristics
At the end of experimental period, four male broiler chicks form each replicates (initially 96 chicks)were slaughtered and then dressing and some visceral organ percentage were calculated.The internal organs were removed after slaughter.

Microbial population determination
To determine the microbial count, about7 cm from the length of the ileum was sampled to investigate the microbial population.Also 1 g of ileum content was usedto make 10-fold dilution using buffered peptone water and0.1 mL of the appropriate ileum dilution was spread on Lactobacillus MRS1 Agar-Hi Media Laboratories to detectlactic acid bacteria and Violet Red Bile Agar) todetect E. coli and Klebsiella form.The plates were stored and incubated at 37.5 • C for 48 h.After counting the number ofcolonies in each plate, the number so obtained was multiplied by inverse of the dilution and the result was stated asthe number of colony forming unit (cfu) in 1 g of the sample described by (Kheiri et al., 2015).

Statically analyzing
To determine the effect of dill powder on blood parameters, performance and carcass traits data were analyzed statistically by one way-ANOVA with SAS 9.1 (2001) software.Additionally Duncan's (1995) multiple range test was used to detect the differences (P<0.05)among different group means.

Results and discussion
Results of using Dill seeds effects on performance of broilers were shown in Table 1.Results revealed that the use of different levels of Dill seeds had increased feed intake (FI) significantly (p<0.05)Result showed that body weight BW (kg) difference was more significant when the birds were fed by Dill seeds.Additionally, feed conversion ratio (FCR) was lesser in Dill seeds group and there were significant differences compared to the control (p<0.05).The usage of Dill seeds had significant influences on FI, BW, FCR and carcass yield.According to Richter (2010) Dill could completely improve digestive process and the digestibility of foods.The beneficial effects of medical plantor active substances in poultry nutrition may include the stimulation of appetite and the improvement of endogenous digestive enzyme secretion, antibacterial, and antioxidant activities (Kheiri et al., 2015).Bahadori et al. (2013) showed that the use different levels of dill powder had no significant effect on feed intake in earlier growth period (p>0.05).The feed intake ofbirds in Dill groups was higher than control and other treatments at grower and whole of the rearing period significantly (p<0.05).In Rafiei-Tari et al.
(2016) study, feed intake was also influenced by dietary treatment of herbal plant as birds that received diet containing Dill seeds showed a significantly (P<0.05)lower feed intake over the course of their experiment.Bahadori et al. (2013) noted that thigh weight percentage was significantly higher in experimental groups than control group (p<0.05), and they had lower weight of breast than control group (p<0.05).They also demonstrated that the use of the highlevel of Dill powder in broiler diet hadlower percent of inner fat significantly (p<0.05)than control group.Rafiei-Tari et al. (2016) demonstrated that carcass weight andcarcass components were not positively influenced by the dietary treatments with Dill seeds.Scientific research on the effect of Dill seeds on serum biochemical in poultry is limited.Bahadori et al. (2013) suggested that there were not significant effects of Dill seeds on cholesterol and serum blood highdensity lipoprotein levels in broilers.It has been argued that dill has dose-dependent cholesterol-lowering effects (Zhang et al., 2007).They also showed that birds fed by Dill seeds showed significantly (P<0.05)lower very low-density lipoprotein and triglyceride serum compared to control group.Yazdanparast and Alavi (2008) reported that the dill extract could reduce broilers cholesterol and triglyceride properties.
In the present study, the intestinal microbial population of gram-negative (Escherichia Coli and Klebsiella) bacteria decreased significantly in treated groups (P<0.05).Ghaedi et al. (2014) who observed that inclusion of black pepperin the diet lowered microbial colony in the illeal content of broiler chickens.Faghani et al. (2014) demonstrated that the reduction in microbial load of broiler chickens intestinal could bedue to the antibacterial effect of some herbals on intestinal microbiota.Our findings about intestinal microbiota are in agreement with Faghani et al. (2014) and Ghaedi et al. (2014).

Conclusion
Briefly, we could demonstrate that the using of Dill seeds as medical plantand its advantages on broilers chicks' performance.These beneficial actsmay be due to the biological functionsof this medical plantto improve performanceor may be due toits role as appetite stimulant, carminative, digestibility enhancer, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.Additionally, further studies are needed for more discussion and explanations.

Table 1 .
Composition (%) of the experimental diets for broiler chicks

Table 2 .
The effect of using Dill seeds on broilers chicks performance *Means in each column followed by the same letters are not significantly different(P<0.05).

Table 3 .
The effect of using Dill seeds on some visceral organs percentage

Table 4 .
The effect of using Dill seeds on some blood biochemical.

Table 5 .
The effect of using Dill seeds on (Escherichia Coli and Klebsiella) bacteria (cfu.g).