Effect of Rhus coriaria L. on performance productive, physiological and carcass characteristics of broiler chicks

A study conducted to estimate effect of Rhus Coriaria L in performance productive, blood profile lipids, carcass characteristics and intestinal flora. A total of 135 chicks Ross308 that divided randomly for three treatments, each treatment divided to three replicates. T1 as control treatment (without supplementation), while T2, T3 received 1, 2 gm/kg diet from sumac powder respectively. The results showed significant superiority in body weight, weight gain and feed conversion in T2, T3 and significant decreased in feed intake in T2. The dressing percentage significantly increase T2, T3, also noted significant increase in breast weight in T3, drumstick weight and abdominal fat percentage in T2. As for the giblets the gizzard showed a significant increase in relative weight. The blood lipids showed significant decrease in TG, HDL, VLDL concentration in T2, T3. The microbiological study showed that number of E. Coli and clostridium significant decrease (P<0.05) in T3 and Staphylococcus decrease in T2, T3, conversely noted significant increase of lactic acid bacteria in T2, T3 compared to control. It can conclude from this study that sumac has a noticeable effect on the productive, physiological performance and intestinal flora of broilers.

1. Introduction poultry industry has advanced significantly due to the continuous and increasing demand for animal protein [1].This development caused an increase in the demand for poultry feed ingredients which led to high prices [2].For the aforementioned reasons poultry nutritionists have resorted to using antibiotics in low concentrations to stimulate growth and maintain the health of poultry as well [3].Antibiotics have the ability to improve the health of the gastrointestinal tract which increase the body utilization of food which reflect positively on growth, on the other hand the continuous of antibiotics are using in poultry food will increase the resistance of harmful bacteria and will lead to the death of harmful and beneficial bacteria together in poultry intestinal [4].Because of the warnings about the transmission of these antibiotics to the human body through poultry meat fed on diets containing antibiotics and the health risks it may cause, for this reason, scientists have concluded that the best alternative to antibiotics is herbs and their derivatives there are many advantages in using herbs, such as ease of use and no side effects in the body [5].Rhus Coriaria L. (sumac) is Anacardiaceous family plant Sumac used as food flavorings and as herbs in folk medicine, and is widespread in countries near the equator [6].It has been used since ancient times by indigenous people in medicinal fields and for other application [7].Sumac fruit contain flavones, hydrolysable tannin, antioxidant, phenolic acid, anthocyanin and some acids such as tartaric, citric and malic acid [8].Studies shown that sumac has a positive effect on poultry production.Golzadeh et al [9] noted that added sumac powder to broiler diets led to a significantly improve in feed conversion ratio, HDL and intestinal composition, and significantly decreased in concentration of abdominal fat, cholesterol and VLDL.Kheiri et al [10] noted that use sumac in broiler diets led to improvement in weight gain rate, feed conversion efficiency, HDL and lactic acid bacteria numbers and a significant decrease in feed consumed, TG, TC and LDL and E.coli numbers.Mohammadi et al [2] found that use of sumac with the probiotic in the diets of hens chicks led to improvement in the body weight gain and feed conversion and carcass weight, While the results of the same study did not show any difference in the weight of the breast, thigh, liver, heart, spleen and abdominal fat relative to body weight.Another study showed that using a mixture of sumac, onions and yeast led to a significant improvement in weight, weight gain, and an increase in the amount of feed consumed [11].The Ghasmi et al [12] Found the mix sumac with broiler diet resulted in an improvement in the villi length, depth of the crypts, goblet cells number and in intestinal epithelial thickness.The aim of this study is to determine the effect of Rhus Coriaria, at two different doses on the productive performance, some physiological indicators, and the intestinal flora of broiler.

Materials and methods
The experiment included 135 unsexed chicks Ross 308 It was randomly divided into three different treatments, each treatment included three replications (15 chick pre each) .The treatments were as follows: T1 is control ( without supplement), T2 and T3 received 1 and 2gm/kg diet of sumac powder respectively.Water and feed provided Ad libitum, Chicks fed on three types of dietary (Table 1) according to Ross 308 guide (2014), and the chemical composition calculated according to NRC [13] .The lighting program followed during the experiment was 24 hours of light were provided.

Growth performance
At the end study (35 day of the age) feed intake and body weight were measured, the weight gain and feed conversion efficiency were also calculated for all treatments during the same period [14].

Blood parameters
Samples blood collected from jugular vein of birds in day 35 (the last day of the experiment), the blood serum separated by centrifuge and kept freeze until required test.TC, TG and HDL were measured according to their respective reagent kits, while VLDL and LDL were calculated according to Tietz et al [15] and Martia et al [16] respectively.

Carcass trait
With regard to the measurements of the carcass, six birds selected from each treatment (3male , 3female), they were slaughtered dressing percentage, abdominal fat, giblets and carcass cuts were measured according to Park et al [17].

Microbial count
After removing the internal entrails, a 5 cm length sample was taken from the small intestine of birds from each treatment, added to a 45 ml physiological salt solution and the ingredients were mixed well.1ml from the mixture transferred to 9 ml of the dilution solution, and so on until the dilution was up to 104¯ [18].to estimate the numbers of following types of bacteria, E. coli, Lactic acid bacteria, Clostridium botulinum and Staphylococcus aureus.

Statistical analysis
The study data analysed by the GLM method of SAS (statistical analysis system) [19] and use Duncan Multiple test [20] for compare among average treatments effect.

Ethical committee
The ethical committee of animal research of the department of animal production permitted all experimental protocols Tikrit University (No. TU30701938).

Results and discussion
The result from table (2) showed feeding of diet add to it 1gm, 2gm/kg diet of sumac powder significantly increased in chickens body weight also body weight gain and feed conversion ratio while significantly decrease in feed intake of T2 compared with T1.The positive effect of sumac powder may be due it contains active material such as anti-microbial that work to reduce effect the harmful flora in the intestinal tract and thus improve the absorption of amino acids resulting in enhanced growth [21].The sumac powder affected the small intestine and enhanced its ability to digest energy compounds, thus increasing the amount of energy produced and this will be positively reflected in the performance of broiler chickens [22] the improvement in production performance is the active substances found in sumac (eugenol and cinnamaldehyde), which increase the efficiency of utilization of feed materials, which enhances the better growth of chicks and These substances are also considered natural growth stimulants, and one of their characteristics is that they act as safe antibiotics, and at the same time, they do not cause any genetic mutations to the microorganisms in the digestive tract.[12].These results agreed with the findings of [11] and [21] who noted that adding different levels of sumac led to a significant improvement in body weight, weight gain, and feed conversion efficiency in broiler and Japanese quail.
Effect dietary in different levels of sumac in carcass parameters are showed in Table (3) that appear significant improvement in dressing percentage for (T2) and (T3), as well as a significantly increase in relative weight of breast muscle and drumstick for the (T3) and (T2) respectively.Also result showed significant increase in abdominal fat in T2 relative to the T1, while no significant differences appeared in the thigh muscle in T2, T3 relative to the control treatment (T1).The improvement in dressing percentage in addition to the relative weight of the major organs may be due to the improvement of liver function, in addition to the increase in the secretion of pancreatic enzymes that digest carbohydrates and protein which will positively affect the growth of these organs [10].It is noted in Table ( 4) that the different levels from sumac did not significantly affect in the relative weight of the liver, heart, and spleen, While a significant improvement was observed in the relative weight of the gizzard in T2 compared to the T1, The improvement in the relative weight of the gizzard may be due to the effect of sumac in improving the rate of carbohydrates metabolism and protein in the body's organs, which improves its growth [23] .
It is noted from the same table that the high concentration of sumac led to a significant decrease in abdominal fat for the T3 compared to the control treatment.This decrease in the concentration of abdominal fat is positively related to the decrease in the concentration of triglycerides for the same treatment (Table 5), which is considered responsible for the deposition of fats in adipose tissue, as the process of manufacturing fatty acids in the liver will be limited because some of the active substances in sumac, such as saponins which work to inhibit the HMG-COA reductase enzyme responsible for manufacturing fats in the liver.The results in table (5) appeared a significant decreased in the TG, VLDL, and HDL percentage, On the contrary the percentage of TC and LDL didn't show any differences when compared to the control treatments.Mansoob [21] reported that polyphenols works on pressure to reduce the transport of lipids through the intestines and reduce its absorption, which will reduce the concentration of blood lipids.With regard to the intestinal flora, the table (6) result showed a significant decrease (P<0.05) in the concentration of E.coli, Clostridium botulinum in T2 compared to T1 , Also the numbers of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria decreased significantly in T2 and T3 compared with control.The results showed a significant improvement in the concentration of Lactic acid bacteria for the T2 and T3 compared to the T1 treatment.Guvenc and Koyuncu [24] The reason for sumac's effect on bacteria may be its control over some of the bacteria's biochemical processes, such as the process of manufacturing proteins, or inhibition of Methanobacterium elongation and Escherichia coli.Thus, it reduces the growth of harmful bacterial colonies in the intestines of poultry.Or decrease in amount of harmful bacterial population in intestine may be caused by the some substances present in sumac such as polyphenols and tannins that were have remarkable antimicrobial activity [25].These results agreed with the findings of [21] which found that adding different levels of sumac to the diet led to a significant decrease in the number of harmful bacteria in the digestive tract of quails.

Table 6. Effect different levels of sumac on intestinal flora of broiler chicks.
The different letters among same column appear significant differ (P<0.05).* T1 control diet without supplement, T2 and T3 received 1 and 2gm/kg diet of sumac powder respectively.

Conclusion
This study showed that using sumac (Rhus coriaria L) in broiler diet could improve performance productive indicator and carcass trait for broiler chicken.However, sumac feeding could decrease TG and VLDL concentration in blood serum.Sumac can increase Lactic acid bacteria and decrease E. coli, Clostridium, and Staphylococcus content in digestive tract of broiler.Therefore, Sumac can be used as a material that has the ability to improve production performance and some physiological trait in broiler chickens.

Table 1 .
Percentage component of broiler diets used in the experiment with chemical composition.

Table 2 .
Effect sumac in body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (Mean+ Stander Error).
. Or perhaps the reason for
Different letters among column treatment appear significant differ (P<0.05).* T1 control treatment without supplement, T2 and T3 received 1 and 2gm/kg diet of sumac, respectively.

Table 4 .
Effect sumac powder on relative weight of giblets (Mean+ Stander Error).

Table 5 .
Effect sumac on blood serum lipids in broiler chicks (Mean+ Stander Error).