Essential Oils as a Feed Additive in Poultry Nutrition

摘要

The increased awareness and concern over the antibiotic residues in animal and poultry products among the consumers made the hour a prime time to find an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) and it have increased a lot over the past decade. One such alternative is the essential oils (EOs) which are derived from various plants as secondary metabolites. Essential oil usage in animal feeding has been practiced for their role as antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antioxidant, digestive stimulant, immunomodulator, hypolipidemic agent and also heat stress alleviator. They had been successfully used as a dietary antibiotic replacer without residues. They not only act as an in vivo anti-oxidant for the animal but also exert its anti-oxidant action to prolong the shelf life of the feed in which it is incorporated and the meat which is obtained from the animal fed with essential oils. The lean meat produced by essential oil supplementation through the poultry diet reduces the risk of hyperlipidemia in the consumers. The results being favourable as an alternative to antibiotics, spur the researchers to exploit the role of essential oil mixtures as a feed additive. Nowadays, essential oils are used in the ruminant experiments as an agent to reduce the rate of methanogenesis thereby traffics the organic molecules for efficient energy synthesis. Hence, various studies have been carried out across the globe with possible combinations and cocktail of these oils or the crude extracts of their active principles to explore the multifaceted calibre of these feed additives. The expanding horizons in the research on essential oils are expected to pull the curtain down for the extensive use of antibiotics as feed additives. In the near future the role of essential oils in the poultry feeding will play a huge role in the industry development