Growth performance, gastrointestinal tract responses, and meat characteristics of broiler chickens fed a diet containing the natural alkaloid sanguinarine from Macleaya cordata

Until the end of 2005, antibiotics were used in Europe in poultry nutrition as growth-promoting agents. The general European Union ban on antibiotic growth promoters, beginning in 2006, has encouraged the search for effective alternatives. Research not only on performance, but also on the physiological responses of birds is still sparse. This experiment was conducted to characterize, in addition to performance indices, the physiological effect of an alkaloid preparation, Sangrovit, obtained from the aerial parts Macleaya cordata, on the gastrointestinal tract (mainly ceca) of broiler chickens. Carcass meat characteristics and the fatty acid profile of breast meat were evaluated as well. One-day-old broiler chicks (Cobb 500) were fed a wheat-corn- soybean meal control diet without (control) or with a 30 mg/kg dose of the alkaloid preparation for 5 wk. The Sangrovit treatment did not significantly improve final BW, FCR, or breast muscle weight when compared with the control treatment. The n-6: n-3 fatty acid ratio in breast meat was significantly increased by the Sangrovit treatment. The sensory evaluation of breast and thigh meat did not reveal any negative influence of dietary supplementation with the alkaloid preparation. Supplementation of 30 mg/kg of the alkaloid-containing preparation Sangrovit in broiler diets without growth promoters can help perpetuate a beneficial cecal environment, reducing the activities of bacterial beta-glucosidase (P = 0.095) and beta-glucuronidase (P = 0.075) as well as decreasing pH of the digesta (P = 0.060).