Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of Achyranthes japonica Nakai (AJN) extract as a natural feed additive on growth performance, nutrient utilization, cecal microbiota, excreta noxious gas emission, and meat quality in broilers fed corn-wheat-soybean meal diet. In total, seven hundred twenty 1-day-old male Ross 308 broilers with an average body weight (BW) of 43.36 ± 1.42 g were used in a 35-d feeding trial. Broilers were randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 treatments. Each treatment had 10 replication pens with 18 birds per replication. Dietary treatments composed of corn-wheat-soybean meal-based diets along with the addition of 0, 0.025, 0.05, and 0.1% of AJN extract. The BW gain and feed conversion rate were linearly influenced (P < 0.05) by the supplementation of AJN extract during days 8 to 21, 22 to 35, and the overall experiment. At the end of the experiment, the digestibility of dry matter and nitrogen and the population of cecal lactic acid bacteria were linearly improved (P < 0.05) in response to increasing AJN extract supplementation. Excreta emission of ammonia showed a linear decrease (P < 0.05) with the increasing levels of AJN extract. The breast muscle percentage linearly increased (P < 0.05) in birds fed AJN extract contained diets. In summary, the inclusion of AJN extract in corn-wheat-soybean meal diet improved growth performance, nutrient utilization, intestinal microbiota balance, and breast meat production and decreased excreta ammonia emission, which confirmed the applicability of AJN extract as a natural feed additive in broilers.