J. Appl. Poult. Res.
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J APPL POULT RES 2008. 17:128-133. doi:10.3382/japr.2007-00054
© 2008 Poultry Science Association
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Research Reports

Performance of Broilers Fed Diets Supplemented with Sanguinarine-Like Alkaloids and Organic Acids1

S. L. Vieira*,2, O. A. Oyarzabal{dagger}, D. M. Freitas*, J. Berres*, J. E. M. Peña*, C. A. Torres* and J. L. B. Coneglian*

* Departmento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91540-000, Brazil; and {dagger} Department of Poultry Science, Auburn University, 260 Lem Morrison Dr., Auburn, AL 36849-5416

2 Corresponding author: slvieira{at}ufrgs.br


   SUMMARY
TOP
 SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS
 REFERENCES AND NOTES
 
Considerable controversy still remains on the use of antimicrobials to promote growth in animals raised for human consumption. Therefore, alternative strategies have been actively researched to replace these antimicrobials. This study evaluated the performance of broilers fed Sangrovit (1.5% sanguinarine, a quaternary benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloid extracted from plants), a blend of organic acids (40% lactic, 7% acetic, 5% phosphoric, and 1% butyric) or a combination of Sangrovit and organic acids. One-day-old male broiler chicks (Cobb x Cobb 500) were placed in 44 floor pens, with 35 birds per pen. Birds were fed corn-soybean meal all-vegetable diets without growth promoters or anticoccidials, and were vaccinated for coccidiosis at placement. Four treatments and 11 replications were used. A negative control treatment, Sangrovit 50, 25 ppm (1 to 21 d and 22 to 42 d, respectively) of organic acids (8 kg/ton from 1 to 7 d, 6 kg/ton from 7 to 21 d, 4 kg/ton from 21 to 35 d, 2 kg/ton from 35 to 42 d), or both additives were tested. Body weight, feed intake, feed conversion, and intestinal villus height and crypt depth were evaluated weekly. Birds fed Sangrovit or organic acids had improved BW at 21 d (P ≤ 0.05), but not thereafter. Cumulative feed conversion was better in birds fed Sangrovit alone or in combination with organic acids (P ≤ 0.05). No differences were observed in villus height or crypt depth at 7, 14, 21 or 42 d. These results suggest that Sangrovit and the blend of organic acids used in this study were possibly beneficial additives for feeding programs designed without the addition of growth promoters.

Key Words: broiler • sanguinarine • organic acid


   DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM
TOP
 SUMMARY
 DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM
MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS
 REFERENCES AND NOTES
 
Considerable controversy still remains on the use of antimicrobials to promote growth in food animal production. Epidemiological events that result in antimicrobial resistance by bacteria are difficult events to study, and several factors, including the overuse or misuse of antimicrobials in human and veterinary medicine, may intensify the severity of the problem [1]. Interestingly, a recent economic analysis based on a large data set available in the United States suggested that production costs may not increase if growth promoters are not included in the feed [2]. In recent years, growth promoters have been banned in some European countries and have undergone voluntary withdrawal by some producers to attend to specific market demands.

There has been an increase in investigations of alternatives to growth promoters, including plant extracts and organic acids. A frequent difficulty in accepting plant extracts as feed additives is the identification and standardization of their active substances. The modes of action of herbal extracts available on the market are not well understood. Limitations are more apparent for compounds that are mixtures of several extracts, each with a different claimed activity. However, active compounds obtained from plants have been used for a variety of human needs for centuries. Natural compounds extracted from plants, such as the quaternary benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids (QBA) sanguinarine and chelerythrine, are known to have antimicrobial [3–5], antiinflammatory [6, 7], and immunemodulatory [8, 9] effects. Sanguinarine has been incorporated into swine, bovine, and poultry diets to decrease amino acid degradation, increase feed intake, and promote growth [10, 11]. Improvements in protein retention by reducing the intestinal decarboxylation of aromatic amino acids through the inhibition of L-aminoacid decarboxylase [12] and enhancement of feed intake by modulating effects on the Trp-serotonin pathway have also been suggested as part of their a mode of action [13].

Short-chain organic acids have also been added in animal feeds as antimicrobial agents [14, 15]. Their antimicrobial properties are accentuated at low pH, where their dissociated carboxyl groups penetrate the microbial cells and lead to the eventual death of the cells [14–17]. Blends of organic acids having different pKa values have a broader spectrum of action throughout the intestine, where different pH values are encountered when the feed moves toward the large intestine. Organic acids also have energy values that may represent an immediate supply to the enterocyte [18]. Because of their antimicrobial properties, organic acids are also viewed as alternatives to growth promoters. Their supplementation in broiler feeds, however, has shown conflicting results, in part because of the different organic acids, doses, microbial challenges, or evaluated responses that have been used in the published experiments [19–25].

Our experiment was aimed at determining the live performance of broilers fed corn-soybean meal all-vegetable diets supplemented with san-guinarine, organic acid blends, or both. Body weight, feed intake, feed conversion, and the evaluation of villus height and crypt depth were measured in experimental broiler chickens raised to 42 d.


   MATERIALS AND METHODS
TOP
 SUMMARY
 DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS
 REFERENCES AND NOTES
 
General Husbandry Practices
One-day-old Cobb x Cobb 500 male chicks [26] (1,540 total; average BW = 49 g), were obtained from a commercial hatchery. Birds were randomly placed in 44 floor pens (35 per pen) measuring 1.50 x 1.75 m each, in a broiler house with a concrete floor. Recycled litter after 3 batches of chickens was used. A 24-h lighting program was used in the first week and an 18-h program was used thereafter. Birds were vaccinated for Marek’s disease and infectious bronchitis at the hatchery, and for coccidiosis (Paracox-5) [27] at placement. Management practices were similar to those in commercial broiler rearing.

Diets
Corn-soybean meal all-vegetable mash diets without growth promoters were provided throughout the experiment. Feed and water were offered ad libitum by 1 tubular feeder and 1 bell drinker per pen. Feeds were provided as starter diet from placement to 21 d, grower diet to 35 d, and finisher diet to 42 d. Control diets were formulated according to Rostagno [28] and are presented in Table 1Go. Treatments included the following 4 feeding programs: feeds without additive, feeds supplemented with sanguinarine, feeds supplemented with a blend of organic acids, and feeds supplemented with both additives. Sanguinarine was provided in its commercially available form in Brazil as Sangrovit (1.5% sanguinarine) [29], as was the organic acid blend (Premium Lac [30]; 40% lactic acid + 7% acetic acid + 5% phosphoric acid + 1% butyric acid; ME = 3,200 kcal/kg). The organic acid blend was added on top of the other ingredients; therefore, its energy value was not considered in feed formulation. A description of the treatments is presented in Table 2Go. Each treatment had 11 replications.


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  		Table 1. Ingredient composition of the experimental diets
 

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  		Table 2. Outline of the experimental treatments
 
Attributes Measured
Body weight per pen was evaluated at 0 (placement), 7, 14, 21, 35, and 42 d. Feed intake and feed conversion were determined and corrected by using the weight of dead birds. Mortality was recorded daily. At 7, 14, and 21 d, 1 bird was randomly selected from each pen, euthanized, and sampled for villus height and crypt depth by removing the duodenum and jejunum. At 42 d, 6 birds per pen, with BW close to the pen average, were selected, fasted for 10 h, tagged, and euthanized. Each carcass was bled for 3 min, defeathered, and the viscera manually removed. Carcasses were chilled in slush ice for 3 h. A team of deboners from a commercial integrator processed the carcasses to collect the breast fillets (pectoralis major plus pectoralis minor muscles), wings, thighs, drumsticks, cage, and abdominal fat. Cuts were expressed as percentage of carcass weight.

Statistical Analysis
Data were analyzed by using the ANOVA procedure of SAS [31]. Tukey’s test was used to assess differences between means, and values of P < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Mortality data were analyzed after arc sin transformation.


   RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
TOP
 SUMMARY
 DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS
 REFERENCES AND NOTES
 
The effects of dietary treatments on BW and feed conversion are presented in Table 3Go. Comparisons of the control treatment with sanguinarine- and organic acid-supplemented treatments show improvements in BW at 7 and 14 d when they were added together. However, improvements in BW at 21 d were observed only when the additives were added individually. Differences in BW between treatments disappeared after 21 d. Feed conversion corrected for the weight of dead birds was also affected by the treatments, with weekly improvements attributable to organic acids from 1 to 3 wk and to sanguinarine in the second week. Benefits on cumulative feed conversion from placement to 42 d were observed when sanguinarine was added to the feeds, individually or in combination with organic acids. Cumulative feed conversion was not significantly improved when organic acids were supplemented.


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  		Table 3. Growth performance parameters of broilers fed diets supplemented with sanguinarine, organic acids, or both from 1 to 42 d
 
Feed intake was affected only from 22 to 35 d (Table 4Go). In that period, adding both additives in the same feed resulted in a reduction of feed intake. Because BW gain was not affected in that period, it was possibly due to the observed improvement in feed conversion for that treatment.


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  		Table 4. Feed intake of broilers fed diets supplemented with sanguinarine, organic acids, or both from 1 to 42 d
 
Mortality rate was considered normal for the time of year and growth rate of the birds, and it was not affected by the treatments (average = 5.3%). Intestinal morphology measurements as well as the yield of carcass and commercial cuts were not affected by the treatments.

Research with sanguinarine or other QBA have been conducted in many scientific areas. However, to our knowledge, investigations of these compounds as feed additives for broiler chickens have never been conducted. Organic acids, on the contrary, have been used in broiler feeds in many ways and with several objectives. Consistency in the results and description on the mode of action of organic acids with broilers has been shadowed by the great variety of acids used and possible combinations in the existing blends.

It has been largely accepted that subtherapeutic doses of antimicrobials are beneficial in intensive systems of farm animals. Antimicrobial effects are usually accepted as the only function of these additives. However, Niewold [32] recently suggested that the effects of growth promoters may be mediated through antiinflammatory mechanisms. This opens a new window of opportunity in the search for additives to promote animal growth. If this is correct, the search for alternatives to growth promoters does not necessarily mean a search for substances with the same mode of action as antimicrobials. Sanguinarine, like some other QBA, has several interesting characteristics as feed additives for broilers. Most of these characteristics serve as support for the benefits in BW and feed conversion observed in this study. For instance, antiinflammatory activity has been demonstrated with various QBA, including sanguinarine [6, 8]. In pig intestines, this activity is mostly expected to be caused by contact because the bulk of these alkaloids are excreted in the feces, with a very small proportion being absorbed [33]. Quaternary benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids have antimicrobial activity [6], and minimum inhibitory concentrations of sanguinarine have been found for several bacteria present in the oral cavity of humans [34]. Many of these bacteria belong to the genus commonly found in the gastrointestinal tract of chickens. Therefore, sanguinarine effects against them could, by analogy, be expected.

The organic acid blend used in this study was effective in improving BW to 3 wk, with no effect afterward. However, its positive benefits on feed conversion toward the end of the study were dependent on the concomitant presence of sanguinarine. We cannot determine from the current results whether sanguinarine and the organic acid blend have similar modes of action. However, results apparently indicate that no synergism occurred when both additives were supplemented to the same feed. The gross energy of the organic acid blend in this study was 3,200 kcal/kg [18]. Because it was added on top of the other ingredients to make up a fixed amount of feed, the final ME of diets was very similar and not expected to influence energy intake by broilers fed diets supplemented with organic acids. On the basis of previous research, it should therefore be expected that their antimicrobial effects were responsible for the observed benefits.

None of the additives was effective in modifying the measured parameters of intestinal morphology. Villus condition has become a common measurement in supporting the effects of nutrition on gastrointestinal physiology. However, relationships between live performance improvements and villus height or crypt depth measurements many times have failed to show significant correlations, as was the case in the present study.


   CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS
TOP
 SUMMARY
 DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS
REFERENCES AND NOTES
 

  1. Dietary supplementation with sanguinarine or organic acids improved BW at 3 wk of age. However, no benefits were observed thereafter.
  2. Cumulative feed conversion from placement to 42 d was improved by the supplementation of sanguinarine and organic acids.
  3. Gut morphology and the yield of carcass and commercial cuts were not improved when sanguinarine or organic acids were supplemented to the feeds.


   FOOTNOTES
 
1 The use of trade names or products in this text does not imply approval of that product over similar products that may be available. Back


   REFERENCES AND NOTES
TOP
 SUMMARY
 DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS
 REFERENCES AND NOTES
 

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