Intestinal Development and Histomorphometry of Broiler Chickens Fed Trichoderma reesei Degraded Date Seed Diets
Salem R. Alyileili, Khaled A. El‐Tarabily, Ibrahim E. H. Belal, Wissam H. Ibrahim, Mohsin Sulaiman, Ahmed Hussein
Abstract
was used to produce the DDP using a solid-state degradation method. One hundred and eighty broilers were divided into six treatments in triplicate groups of 10 chicks each. The dietary treatments were: positive control with corn-soy basal diet, negative control with corn-soy basal diet + 20% oxytetracycline at 0.05%, corn-soy basal diet + 10% DDP, corn-soy basal diet + 0.2% mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), corn-soy basal diet + 0.2% mannose and corn-soy basal diet + 0.1% mannose for 6 weeks. The results indicate that a 10% DDP diet increased the activities of the pancreatic enzymes, the villus length, and the villus/crypt ratio, and decreased the crypt depth of the intestine. In conclusion, when compared to oxytetracycline and MOS, DDP can be used as a replacement for antibiotic growth promoters for broilers while improving gut development and intestinal health.