Abstract: This study was conducted to evaluate economic value of clove and oregano cultivated in Iran on economic value of broiler chickens diets. About 271 day old Ross strain broiler chickens were allocated to 9 experimental diets with 3 replications in a 3x3 factorial experiment. Treatments were 0, 0.5 and 1% of clove and oregano (AH) that used as top-dress. A basal diet was formulated according to NRC recommendation for grower (14-21 days) and finisher (21-42) periods. The results showed that clove and oregano had significant effects on feed intake, feed conversion ratio and the cost of 1 kg feed and cost of 1 kg meat production (p<0.05).

INTRODUCTION

The history of herbs is as long as the story of mankind for people has used these plants since earliest times. Wars have been fought and lands conquered for the sake of plants and even today we continue to depend on exotic species for many of the newest medicines and chemicals (Richmond and Mackley, 2000). Recently, many countries tended to minimize or prohibit the chemical components for their deleterious side effects on both animals and human.

Therefore, it is important to use natural promoters. Huang et al. (1992) concluded that the Chinese medicinal herbs have a stimulating effect on growth of broilers. In addition, some plants were found to have natural effects, e.g., tonics, anti-parasitic, anti-bacterial, stimulant, carminative, anti-fungal, anti-microbial and antiseptic (Boulos, 1983a; El-Emary, 1993; Soliman et al., 1995) in addition, Acacia nilotica has been used in controlling diseases caused by Clostridium perfringens (Schragle and Muller, 1990).

In this respect, vegetable, herbs, spices and edible plants were suggested a non-traditional feed additive or growth promoters in broiler diets to improve the growth feed conversion efficiency and reduce the cost of feed (Boulos, 1983b; Ali et al., 1992; Gill, 1999; Dickens et al., 2000; Abaza, 2001; Al-Harthi, 2002; Hassan et al., 2004). Also, Sabra and Mehta (1990) applied herbal plants as growth promoters in broiler diets and observed a pronounced improvement in their body weight gain, mortality rate and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR). Vogt (1990) fed broiler diets with extracted oils from thyme, mace and caraway or coriander, garlic and onion at 0, 20, 40 and 80 mg kg^-1 diet and found that daily gain, FCR, flavor and smell of meat were not affected by the extracted oils.

Abd El-Latif et al. (2002) indicated that adding thyme, black cumin, dianthus or fennel in Japanese quail diet improved body weight, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio. It was necessary to throw some more light on these plants concerning their effects on broiler performance.

Herbs and spices are not just appetite and digestion stimulants but can with impact on other physiological functions help to sustain good health and welfare of the animals and improve their performance Frankic et al. (2009). Feed supplements with growth promoting activity increase stability of feed and beneficially influence the gastrointestinal ecosystem mostly through growth inhibition of pathogenic microorganism’s growth. Due to improved health status of digestive system, animals are less exposed to the toxins of microbiological origin. Consequently herbs and spices help to increase the resistance of the animals exposed to different stress situations and increase the absorption of essential nutrients, thus improving the growth of the animals (Windisch et al., 2008). Numerous secondary metabolites formed by plants serve as defence agents against physiological and environmental stressors, predators and pathogenic microorganisms. Several in vitro studies showed strong antimicrobial activity of certain plant extracts against Gram and Gram+bacteria. Di-Pasqua et al. (2006). Therefore, the objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of clove and oregano on economic value of broiler chickens diet in weather of Khuzestan.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This experiment was carried out with 270 day old male and female (Ross-308) broilers. Birds were weighed and distributed in pens of 10 birds each. The experimental treatments include: control (without AH); 5 g kg^-1 oregano; 10 g kg^-1 oregano; 5 g kg^-1 clove; 5 g kg^-1 clove+5 g kg^-1 oregano; 5 g kg^-1 clove+10 g kg^-1 oregano; 10 g kg^-1 clove; 10 g kg^-1 clove+5 g kg^-1 oregano; 10 g kg^-1 clove+10 g kg^-1 oregano.

Birds and feed consumption were weighed weekly to determine body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio mortality was recorded daily. The starter diet was fed from 1-14 days old, the grower from 14-28 days old and the finisher from 28-42 days.

Clove and oregano were used as top-dress. Mashed diets were offered ad libitum during the entire experimental period and formulated with corn and soybean meal according to NRC recommendations. Table 1 and 2 data were analyzed as factorial experiment by SAS. Duncan’s multiple range tests was used to compare treatment means at p<0.05.

Table 1:	Composition of experimental diets

Table 2:	Analysis of experimental diets

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The effects of oregano and clove on economic value of growing broiler chicken are shown in Table 3. In compared with control group, the cost of kg feed increased with increasing oregano and clove in diets. During in grower phase (0-21 day), feed intake had significant difference (p<0.05) between diets. Nevertheless, birds fed diet 8 (10 g kg^-1 clove+5 g kg^-1 oregano) had lower feed intake than another diets. Feed conversion ratio at the grower phases was significantly (p<0.05) lower in birds receiving the diets containing 5 g kg^-1 clove (T₄) than other diet.

There were significant difference (p<0.05) between bird fed control diet with bird fed diet containing clove and oregano for the cost of kg meat production. T₄ (5 g kg^-1 clove) had lower cost of kg meat production (p<0.05). During the finisher phase (21-42 day), the lowest feed intake and feed conversion ratio was belonged to bird fed diet 4 (5 g kg^-1 clove), respectively (p<0.05). The cost of kg meat production had significant difference (p<0.05) between experiment diet. At whole of period (0-42 days), there was significant differences (p<0.05) in feed intake between diet 1 (control group) with other diets.

The birds fed diet 2 (5 g kg^-1 oregano) had least feed intake than control and other trial group. Feed conversion ratio was significantly different between diets (p<0.05). However, trial 9 (10 g kg^-1 clove+10 g kg^-1 oregano) had highest feed conversion and bird fed diet 8 (10 g kg^-1 clove+5 g kg^-1 oregano) had best feed conversion than other group. The cost of kg meat production had significant difference (p<0.05) between diets. The best cost of kg meat production was T₅ (5 g kg^-1 clove+5 g kg^-1 oregano in between diets (p<0.05) (Table 4). In compared with control group, the cost of kg feed increased with increasing clove and oregano in diets (the supplements were used as top-dress).

As shown in Table 5, there were significant differences (p<0.05) in feed intake between control group with other treatments. This result agreed with finding of Halle et al. (2004) and Cabuk et al. (2006) also disagreement with those obtains by Mehala and Moorthy (2008), Ertas et al. (2005), Al-Sultan (2003) and Sinurat et al. (2002). In fact, the Feed conversion ratio value that is the most sensitive factor in assessing performance, this factor depend on feed intake and grain of weight and an indication of quality of diets by the birds.

The results agreed with obtained by Mellor (2000), Durrani et al. (2006), Al-Kassie (2009) and Jamroz and Kamel (2002) also disagreement with those obtains by Hernandez et al. (2004) and Mehala and Moorthy (2008).

Table 3:	Economic evaluation: The Effects of clove and oregano as feed supplement ingredient of broiler chickens on cost of feed and meat
FI = Feed Intake; FCR = Feed Conversion Ratio; Cf = The cost of 1 kg feed; Cf = The cost of 1 kg feed intake; Cm = The cost of 1 kg meat production; SEM = Standard Error of Means

Table 4:	Economic evaluation: the effects of clove as feed supplement ingredient of broiler chickens on cost of feed and meat
FI = Feed Intake; FCR = Feed Conversion Ratio; Cf = The cost of 1 kg feed; Cf = The cost of 1 kg feed intake; Cm = The cost of 1 kg meat production; SEM = Standard Error of Means

Table 5:	Economic evaluation: The Effects of oregano as feed supplement ingredient of broiler chickens on cost of feed and meat
FI = Feed Intake; FCR = Feed Conversion Ratio; C f= The cost of 1 kg feed; Cf = The cost of 1 kg feed intake; Cm = The cost of 1 kg meat production; SEM = Standard Error of Means

Economic value was improved in chicks fed diets supplemented with the herbal feed additives as compared with the unsupplemented one. The results obtained from cost of kg meat production agreed by report of Zeb-Ansari et al. (2008), Osman et al. (2006), Abd El-Latif et al. (2002) and Hassan et al. (2004).

CONCLUSION

Therefore, use of clove and oregano reduces the cost of feed intake and had significant effect on meat cost. Thus, these supplements may use in poultry diets in replacement by industrial antioxidant in heat stress condition and growth promoters for improvement of feed conversion ratio.