Effects of Astragalus Polysaccharide on Growth Performance and Immune Function of Broilers

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of Astragalus polysaccharide on growth performance and immune functions of broilers.Two hundred and forty one-day-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly divided into 4 groups with 3 replicates in each group and 20 broilers in each replicate.The basal diets were supplemented with 0,100,200 and 400 mg/kg Astragalus polysaccharide,respectively.The experiment lasted for 49 days.Growth performance,immune organ omdocws and immunoglobulin were determined in different periods.The results showed that BW,ADFI,F/G and thymus and bursal of Fabricius indices of broilers fed 200 mg/kg Astragalus polysaccharide diet were significantly affected(P0.05);adding 100 mg/kg Astragalus polysaccharide to the basal diet significantly affected bursal of Fabricius index(P0.05)and did not significantly affect the immunoglobulin level in serum of broilers(P0.05).In conclusion,it can be seen that adding proper amount of Astragalus polysaccharide to the basal diets improved broiler growth performance and enhanced immune organ growth and functions;and 200 mg/kg group was the best among the four groups.