A preliminary study of the poultry body weight effect of carvacrol in litter and of carvacrol residue in organ tissue of exposed chickens
Published Online: Nov 04, 2022
Page range: 613 - 617
Received: Jun 27, 2022
Accepted: Sep 19, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jvetres-2022-0054
Keywords
© 2022 T. Śniegocki et al. published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Introduction
Carvacrol is an essential oil extracted from oregano which can be used as a natural additive in poultry litter and could have a positive impact not only on production rates but also on the quality of poultry meat. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the addition of carvacrol to litter on weight gain and the occurrence of residues in chicken tissues.
Material and Methods
One-day-old Ross 308 chicks were used for the study and were randomly divided into two experimental groups. For 42 days, one group was kept in a room with litter enriched with carvacrol and the second group was kept in a room with litter without carvacrol. After 42 days, the birds were sacrificed and necropsied. Carvacrol content was determined in homogenised organ tissue samples by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry.
Results
Weekly weighing results showed that exposure to carvacrol in litter had no impact on chicken body weight. The analysis of plasma, muscle, liver and lung tissue after 42 days’ exposure clearly indicated that there were residues of carvacrol in the analysed matrices.
Conclusion
Exposure of chickens to carvacrol left residues but did not affect body weight.