Effects of Fermented Chinese Herbs on Immunity and Antioxidant Ability of Broilers

The experiment was conducted to study the effects of fermented Chinese herbs on immune function and antioxidant ability of broilers.The traditional Chinese herbs(Astragalus,Dryopteris crassirhizoma,Radix isatidis,Polygonum multiflorum,Fructus crataegi,Ligustrum lucidum,Argy wormwood leaf)were mixed evenly in proportion with medicated leaven,starch and water,then fermented under 30℃for 48 hin biochemical incubator.In order to test the effects of the fermented herbs,animal trial was carried out as follows.180one-day-old male AA broiler chicks were randomly divided into 3treatments,6replicates per treatment,10 birds each replicate.The different treatments were fed the following diets:A group,fed basal diet;B group,fed basal diet+0.5% Chinese herbs;C group,fed basal diet+0.5% fermented Chinese herbs.The results showed that:(1)Compared with A group,fermented Chinese herbs significantly improved the thymus index(P0.05),serum lysozyme activity of broilers at 3week(P0.05),improved plasma GSH-Px activity at 6week(P0.05),decreased MDA content in thigh muscle of broilers at 6week(P0.05);(2)Compared with B group,fermented Chinese herbs significantly improved the thymus index(P0.05),ND antibody level of broilers at 3week(P0.05).Overall,the immune function and antioxidant ability of broilers can be improved by the fermented Chinese herbs,which have better applicational effect than the herbs.