ROSEMARY AND THYME EXTRACTS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BROILER FINISHERS | THE EFFECTS

CHAPTER ONE
1.0               INTRODUCTION
As anti-microbial growth promoters antibiotics (flavomycine, Avilamycine, Salinomycine, Avoparicin, Bacitracin, virginamycine etc,) have played a significant role in greatly increasing world poultry meat production. However, due to their side effects and the increased resistance of pathogenic micro-organism resulting from their use, antibiotic application has been restricted (Faixova and Faix, (2008). Humans also receive exposure to antibiotic residues when consuming poultry products (Tajick and Shohreh, 2006). 


 For these reasons, some poultry producers have voluntarily removed most or all of the antibiotics from their chicken feeds. Additionally, food safety has become an issue of greater public concern as part of the greater interest in healthy nutrition. The decision has therefore stimulated a search for natural alternative feed additives, such as rosemary and thyme. The use of feed additives is desirable because it ensures greater productivity of poultry, increase feed palatability, nutrient utilization, stimulate appetite, increase the flow of gastric juice and gives piquancy to tasteless food (Daizak, 1989).
Natural feed additives of plant origin are generally believed to be safer, healthier and less subject to hazards. Herbs and herbal products are incorporated in livestock feeds instead of chemical products in order to stimulate or promote the effective use of feed nutrients which result in more rapid gain, higher production and better feed efficiency (Sabra and Metha, 1990). Moreover, herbs contain active substances that can improve digestion and metabolism and posses bacterial and immunostimulant action of animals (Sabra and Metha, 1990).
The word Rosemary is derived from the Latin word “Rosemarinus” meaning sea dew. It was called “Antos” by the ancient Greeks, meaning the flower of excellence (Giugnolinini, 1985). Oil of Rosemarinus officinalis can be used as flavour or perfume, possess carminative properties and has a high degree of inhibition against 25 genera of bacteria and fungi (Montes et al., 1998). Biologically, rosemary extracts improved feed conversion efficiency of broilers fed diet supplemented with such herb (Singletary and Rokusek, 1997). Rosemary has high amounts of  Rosmaric acid (Nielsen et al., 1999) flavonids and phenolic acids (Ho et al., 2000) that have anti-oxidant capacities. Karpinske et al. (2000) also reported that the addition of rosemary leave extract delayed the appearance of rancidity in poultry products. Tekeli et al. (2006) reported that the Rosemarinus officinalis leaves could be used to decrease blood glucose.
            Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is a member of lamiacege family, with the main components of phenols, thymol (40%) and carvacrol (15%)(Juven et al; 1994). This herb, also used traditionally for several medicinal purposes: respiratory disease, anti microbal, antinociceptive e.t.c. Thymol and carvacrol are the main antibacterial active substances, so this plant can be used instead of commercial antibiotics. Thymol is the antioxidant component in thyme (Aydin et al.; 2005). By consisting of OH, it functions as an “H” transmitter to per oxide after the oxidation of lipids and through this alleviates the formation of the free radical hydroxyperoxide (H2O2) (Lee et al., 2004). It has been reported that the essential oil extracted from thyme, and in particular the phenolic components (Carvacrol and thymol), are responsible for the antioxidant activity observed in the lipid system (Deighton et al., 1993). Carvacrol kills pathogenic micro-organism by disintegrating their cytoplasm, and also prevents an increase in plasma triglyceride and cholesterol (Lee et al., 2003).
The growing popularity of the use Rosemary and Thyme as additives in human and animal nutrition and the insufficient available literature on the effect of rosemary and thyme extracts necessitated the evaluation of the effects of these extracts on the performance of finisher broilers.

1.1       Objectives of Study
1.         To determine the effects of Rosemary And Thyme Extracts On The Performance Of Broiler Finishers.
2.         To investigate the effect of rosemary and thyme extracts on the haematological and serum biochemistry indices of broiler finishers.

1.2       JUSTIFICATION
            Antibiotics have played a fundamental role in poultry production as growth and health promoters.            Antibiotics are used at sub therapeutic doses in animal feeds in order to improve the quality of the products (N.O.A.H, 2001). Although birds raised with these feed additives achieved good performance, their potential side effect present a real public health problem world wide (Donohue, 2003) and led to the ban of these products by European Union in January, 2006 (Kehinde et al., 2011). This decision has stimulated a search for natural alternative feed additives.
Since ancient time, herbs have been known for their varying degrees of antimicrobial activity (Juven et al., 1994). More recently, medicinal plants are used in food as natural antimicrobial (DE camp et al., 2000). The effects of herb medicinal on the performance of poultry production may be due to their characteristic flavours (Moleyan and Naeasimham 1992). It is conceivable that herbal agents could serve as safe alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters due to their suitability and preference of the broiler meat consumers, reduced risks and minimal health hazards.
            Unfortunate, only limited studies have been conducted to evaluate the effects of thyme and rosemary extracts on the performance, haematology and serum biochemical characteristics of finisher broilers. Hence, the need for this study.


CHAPTER TWO
2.0                                                LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1       FEED ADDITIVES IN ANIMAL NUTRITION
            Only quality feed together with proper hygiene, potable water and management can ensure the production of nutritious animal products with desired organoleptic properties (Sexena, 2008). Keeping farm animals healthy is necessary to obtain healthy animal products. For the last decade the use of additives of natural origin in animal and human nutrition has been encouraged.
            In general, feed additives are considered as products applied by the farmer to healthy animals for a nutritional purpose on a permanent basis i.e during the entire production period of the respective species and category, in contrast to veterinary drugs applied for prophylaxis and therapy of diagnosed health problems under veterinarian control for a limited time period, partially associated with a waiting period (Kehinde et al., 2011).
            Phytogenic feed additives are commonly defined as plant derived compounds incorporated into diets to improve the productivity of livestock through amelioration of feed properties, promotion of the animals’ production performance and improving the quality of food derived from those animals. (Windisch, 2008).
            This definition is driven by the purpose of use, other terms are commonly used to classify the vast variety of photogenic compounds, mainly with respect to origin and processing, such as herbs (flowering, non-woody, and non persistent plants), spices (herbs with an intensive smell or taste commonly added to human food), essential oils (volatile lipophilic compounds derived by cold expression or by steam or alcohol distillation, or oleoresins extracts derived by non-aqueous solvents.
            To gain advantageous effects of herbs and species, they can be added to feed as dried plants or parts of plants and as extracts. The composition of extracts from the same plant depends on the method of extraction and whatever can be observed at small does. (Frankic, 2009).
POSSIBLE USE OF HERBS AND SPICES IN ANIMAL NUTRITION
HERBS AND SPICES AS APPETITE AND DIGESTION STIMULANTS
            When considering supplementing the feed with herbs and spices or their extracts to stimulate the appetite, we have to know the taste preferences of different animal spices. (Janz et al., 2007) found that pigs preferred the feed supplemented with rosemary over the feed supplement with ginger.
            Due to the wide variety of active components, different herbs and spices affect digestion processes differently. Most of them stimulate the secretion of saliva and enhance the synthesis of bile acids in the liver and their excretion in bile.
            The effect on bile synthesis and enzyme activity, extracts from herbs and spices accelerate the digestion and shorten the time of feed/food passed through the digestive tract (Platel and Stinvasan, 2001).
ANTI-MICROBIAL ACTIONS
Herbs and spices are well known to exert antimicrobial actions in vitro against important pathogens, including fungi (Adam et al., 1998).
            Feed supplements with growth promotion activity increase stability of feed and beneficially influence the gastrointestinal ecosystem mostly through growth inhibition of pathogenic micro-organism’s growth. Due to improved health status of digestive systems, animals are less exposed to the toxins of micro-biological 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).
            Feed supplements with growth promoting activity increase stability of feed and beneficially influence the gastro intestinal ecosystem mostly through growth inhibition of pathogenic micro-organism’s growth. Due to improved health status of digestive systems, animals are less exposed to the toxins of micro-biological 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).
            The antimicrobial mode of action is considered to arise mainly from the potential of the hydrophobic essential oils to intrude into the bacterial cell membrane, disintegrate membrane structures, and cause ion leakage.
            High antibacterial activities are also reported from a variety of non-phenolic substances, for example, limonene and compounds from sanguinaria Canadensis (Newton et al., 2002). Microbiological analysis of minimum inhibitory concentrations of a plant extracts from spices ad herbs, as well as of pure active substances, revealed levels that considerably exceeded the dietary does when used as phylogenic feed additives (Burt, 2004).
            The exact antimicrobial action of herbs and spices in vivo situations in hard to evaluate, because of the very complex and balanced microbial populations in gastrointestinal tract and the interaction of active components from herbs and spices with other nutrients.

ANTI-OXIDATIVE ACTION
            Anti-oxidative properties are well described for herbs and spices. (Cuppett and Hall, 1998). Among a variety of plants bearing antioxidative constituents, the volatile oils from the labiatae family have been attracting the greatest interest, especially products from rosemary.
            Their ant-oxidative activity arises from phenolic terpenes, such as rosmarinic acid and rosemarol. (Cuppett and Hall, 1998). Other labiatae species with significant antioxidative properties are thyme and oregano, which contain large amounts of the monoterpenes thymol and Carvacrrol (Cuppett and Hall, 1998). In many of these plants, parts of the active substances are highly odorous or may taste hot or pungent, which may restrict their use for animal feeding purposes.
            Herbs and spices can protect the feed against oxidative deterioration during storage. The herb commonly used for Feed/food preservation is rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis). It can be used alone or in combination with to copherols or synthetic antioxidants (Jacobsen et al., 2008).
            The principal potential of feed additives from the labiatae plant family containing herbal phenolic compounds to improve the oxidative stability of animal derived products has been demonstrated for poultry meat (Botsoglou et al., 2002).

IMMUNO STIMULANT FUNCTION
            The Immune system generally benefits from the herbs and spices rich in flavonoids, vitamin C and carotenoids.
            The plants containing molecules which possess immune stimulatory properties are Echinacea, liquorice, garlic and cat’s claw. These plants can improve the activity of lymphocytes, macrophages and NK cells; they increase phagocytosis or stimulate the interpheron synthesis (Craig, 1999).

SPECIFIC IMPACT IN DIETARY PALATABILITY AND GUT FUNCTIONS
            Phytogenic feed additives are often claimed to improve the flavour and palatability of feed, thus enhancing production performance.
            A wide range or spices, herbs and their extracts are known from medicine to exert beneficial actions within the digestive tract, such as laxative and spasmolytic effects, as well as prevention from flatulence (Chrubasik et al., 2005)
            Essential oils used as feed additives for broilers were shown to enhance the activities of trypsin and amylase (Lee et al., 2003).
            Phytogenic feed additives were reported to stimulate intestinal secretion of mucus in broilers, an effect that was assumed to impair adhesion of pathogens and thus to contribute to stabilizing the microbial eubiosis in the gut of the animals (Jamroz et al., 2006). These observations support the hypothesis that phytogenic feed additives may favourably affect gut functions; but the number of in vivo studies with poultry is still quite limited.
            A reduced intestinal and fecal urease activities were also found in broilers fed such extracts (Nazeer et al., 2002). Phytogenic feed additives significantly depressed feed intake in broilers (Mesa et al., 1994).

GROWTH-PROMOTING EFFICACY
            In recent years, phytogenic feed additives have attracted increasing interest as an alternative feeding strategy to replace antibiotic growth promoters.
            The primary mode of action of growth-promoting feed additives arises from stabilizing feed hygiene and even more from beneficially affecting the ecosystem of gastrointestinal microbiota through controlling potential pathogens (Roth and Kirchgessner, 1998).
            Due to stabilized intestinal health, animals are less exposed to microbial toxins and other undesired microbial metabolites, such as ammonia and biogenic amines (Eckel et al., 1992). Consequently, growth promoting feed additives relieves the host animals from immune defense stress during critical situations and increase the intestinal availability of essential nutrients for absorption, thereby helping animals to grow better within the frame work of their genetic potential.
            Recent studies with poultry indicated stabilizing effects of phytogenic feed additives on the ecosystem of gastro intestinal microbiota. (Kroismay et al., 2007) compared a blend of essential oils from Oregano, arise, citrus peels with an antibiotic growth promotant and reported a decrease in microbial activity in the terminal ileum, cecum, and colon of both feed additives.
            Comparable observations for herbal essential oils and oleoresins on the activity of intestinal microbiota were also found in studies with broilers (Namkung et al., 2004).
            Morphological changes in gastrointestinal tissues caused by phylogenic feed additives may provide further information on possible benefits to the digestive tract. Available reports haven shown increased, unchanged, and reduced villi length and crypt depth in the jejunum and colon for broilers treated with phytogenic feed additives (Demir et al., 2005).
THE USE OF HERBS AND SPICES IN NUTRITION OF POULTRY
            How to replace antibiotic grown promoters is also a question for the poultry industry. Some studies on plant extracts are showing promising results. (Cabuk et al., 2006) measured production parameters of broilers which were supplemented by a mixture of oregano, laurel, sage, anise and citrus essential oils. The mixture of essential oils significantly improved feed conversion.
            (Lippens et al., 2005) tested the efficiency of a mixture of cinnamon, oregano, thyme, cayenne pepper and citrus extracts and a mixture of plant extracts and organic acids in comparison to nutritive antibiotic avilamicin in broiler chicken. Chicken supplemented with plant extracts reached significantly higher body weight than the ones in the control or avilamlcin group. Higher body weight is a consequence of increased feed consumption. Feed conversion in group fed plant extracts is 0.4% better than in the group with avilamicin and 2.9% better than in the control group.
            Naidoo et al., (2008) studied the capacity of four African plants which would be appropriate to treat coccidiosisi leaves of combretum woodii, leaves and stem of Artemisia afra, a whole plant  and seeds of vitis vinifera. Extracts of all chosen plants improved the feed conversion.
            The use of herbs and spices as anti oxidants is not important only for the health of the animals, but also for the oxidative stability of their products.
            Essential oil of oregano also efficiently preserved the quality of chicken meat during frozen storage (Botsoglou et al., 2003). Extracts from herbs and spices in combination with vitamins C and E even more effectively prevent lipid per-oxidation in tissues.
ROSEMARY
The word Rosemary is derived from the latin word rosemarinus and was called “Antos” by ancient Greeks, meaning the flower of excellence (Giugnolinini, 1985).
            Rosemarinus officinalis is used as flavor or perfume, possess carminative properties and has high degree of inhibition against genera of bacteria and fungi (Montes et al., 1998)
            The main constituents of essential oil from rosemary leaves are camphor, cineole, and pinene (Tomei et al., 1995). Essential oil content of rosemary ranges from 0.8 to 2.6% of the dry powder weight (Mulas et al, 1998).
            Rosemary extract improved feed conversion efficiency of broilers fed diet supplemented with such herb (Singletary and Rokusek, 1997).
            Rosemary has high amounts of a rosmaric acid (Nielsen et al., 1999) and flavonoids and phenolic acids (Ho et al., 2000) that have antioxidant capacities.
            Rosemarinus officinalis leaves could be used to decrease blood glucose (Tekeli et a.l., 2006).
            Rosemary, belong to lamiaceae family and is well known for its antioxidative properties, flavouring foods and beverages, and several pharmaceutical applications.
Rosemary also have important biological activities in vitro such as anti – turmour, chemo– preventive and anti – inflammatory activities (shuang – sheng, 2006) and may greatly increase the functionality of food in terns of health and wellness.
            Rosemary essential oils have antimicrobial properties against a wide rage of micro-organism (Shalidi and Naczk, 2004).
EFFECTS OF ROSEMARY
            Rosemary plants caused impairment of bacterial enzyme system (Farag et al., 1998).
Rosemary should avoid in the case of epilepsy
Rosemary extract delayed the appearance of rancidity in poultry products (Karpinske et al., 2000).
The antioxidant effect is due to the presence of hydroxyl groups in their phenolic compounds (Shahidi and Wanasundara, 1992).

THYME
            Thyme (Thymus Vulgaris) is a member of Lamiaceae family, with the main components of phenols, Thymol and Carvacrol. It is used traditionally for several medicinal purposes: Respiratory disease, anti microbial, Antinociceptive (Navid Hosseini et al., 2011).
            Thyme (Thymus Vulgaris) is a plant that possess antioxidants (Seung – Joo et al., 2004). The product of thyme extraction are thyme oil extract which contain approximately 15% essential oil (soluble in alcohol and thyme water extract (soluble in water).
            Thymol is the antioxidant component in thyme (Aydin et al., 2005). The essential oil extracted from thyme, and in particular the phenolic components (carvacrol and thymo), are responsible for the antioxidant activity observed in the lipid system (Deighton et al., 1993).
            Carvacrol kills pathogenic micro-organism by disintegrating their cytoplasmas, and also prevent an increase in plasma triglyceride and cholesterol (Lee et al., 2003). Thyme is a potent antiseptic suitable for internal as well as external use. It is used for immune system.
            Thyme improves body weight, feed conversion, and mortality rate of broilers (Toilba, 2003 and Gibbons, 2005). Thyme as well is known for its ability to act antimicrobial and growth promoter herb (Cross et al., 2002).
            Thyme (thymus vulgaris) improves hematocrit percentage and hemoglobin concentration (Rahimi et al., 2011).
            The active principles of thyme essential oil act as a digestibility enhancet, balancing the gut microbial ecosystem and stimulating the secretion of endogenous digestive enzymes and thus improves growth performance in poultry (Lovkova et al., 2001, Willams and Losa, 2001).
EFFECTS OF THYME
            Thyme addition in broiler chicken retarded the rate of lipid peroxidation (Onibi et al., 2009).
            Thyme had a different effect when used as a herb or oil on weight and body mass (Cross et al., 2007).
Thyme oil results in side effects such as headache, Nausea, Dizziness, vomiting and muscular debility.
Thyme extracts decreased body weight gain as compared with control group (Mohan et al., 1996).
Thyme has effects on weight gain and carcass cut (Cross et al., 2007).          

CHAPTER THREE
3.0       MATERIALS AND METHODS
3.1       EXERIMENTAL SITE
            This experiment was carried out at the Poultry Unit of Animal Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources Management, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki.
3.2       SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF THE EXTRACTS;
Thyme and Rosemary leaves were purchased From Abakaliki main market, 200g of thyme and rosemary leaves each was used for the extraction. Thyme and Rosemary aqueous extract was prepared by soaking the grinded thyme and rosemary in one litre of water for 24 hours, then filtered. The homogenous extract was stored in the refrigerator; from there it was served to the birds on daily bases according to the treatments.
3.3    EXPERIMENTAL ANIMAL AND MANAGEMENT
         Sixty five week old broiler birds were randomly assigned to four treatments in a completely randomized design. Each treatment was replicates three (3) times with five (5) birds per replicate. Feed and water were provided ad libitum throughout the experimental period of 5 weeks.
Other routine poultry management procedure which includes daily inspection of birds for symptoms of diseases, mortality, cleaning of troughs and provision of fresh feed and water was maintained.
3.4             EXEPERIMENTAL DIET
Commercial broiler finisher diet was used for the experiment.  The birds in treatment 2 (T2) were served 20ml of thyme extract / liter of water, while birds in treatment 3 (T3) were served 20ml of rosemary extract / liter of water.
  A combination of 20ml of thyme and rosemary extract / liter of water was served to the birds in treatment 4 (T4). Treatment 1 (T1) which served as the control/contained 0.0ml extract. This was served daily.
3.5             PARAMETERS EVALUATED
1                    Weight gain
2                    Feed intake
3                    Feed conversion ratio 
4                    Haematology and Serum biochemical indices
BODY WEIGHT GAIN: Before the experiment started, the birds were weighed to obtain their initial body weight. Then the birds were weighed on weekly basis subsequently. At the end of the experiment, the body weight changes was calculated by subtracting the initial body weight   from final body weight.  The daily body weight gain was determined by dividing the body weight change by the number of days the experiment lasted.
FEED INTAKE: A weighed quantity of feed was given to the birds per replicate in the morning. The left over was collected and weighed every morning. Daily feed intake was determined by subtracting the left over from the quantity given the previous day.
FEED CONVERSION RATIO
            The feed conversion ratio of birds were determined by dividing the average daily feed intake  by the average daily body weight gain.
FCR    =              Average Daily feed
                        Average body weight Gain
WATER INTAKE: A measured quantity of water was given to the birds per replicate daily, and same amount of water measured was left in a separate drinker to determined the rate of evaporation after which, the left over was weighed and water intake was  equally weighed and recorded.
            Water intake was determined by adding the amount of water evaporated to the atmosphere and the left over and then substrate it from the water served.

PROTEIN EFFICIENCY RATIO
            The daily protein intakes of the birds was first obtained. Protein efficiency ratio was determined by using the values of daily protein intakes obtained to divide the daily weight gain of the birds.

HAEMATOLOGY INDICES:
            At the end of the experiment, 2mls of blood sample was collected from two (2) birds in each treatment for the evaluation of haematological indices. The blood sample was collected through the wing veins using sterile needle and syringes. The blood collection was done in the morning hour to avoid too much bleeding. The collection site was swabbed with alcohol cotton wool. The blood sample was collected into a sample bottle containing dipotassium salt of ethylene diamine tetracetic  acid (EDTA-K2+) which served as anticoagulant.
            The blood sample was analyzed of packed cell volume (PCV), total erythrocyte (RBC), haemoglobin (Hb) and differential leucocytes (WBC) count according to the methods described by Vein (1984). Erythrocyte (RBC) count was done in a haemoctometer chamber with Natt and Hardrics dilvents to obtain 1:200 dilution. The number of leucocytes was estimated as total WBC x200 Packed Cell Volume (PCV) was measured as micro haematocrit with 75 x 16 cm capillary tubes filled with blood and centrifuge.
            The differential count of leucocytes was made from blood, stained with wrights dye and each type of cell counters with laboratory counter.
            Haemoglobin concentration (Hb) level was calculated according to Bush (1991). Mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration was also calculated according to standard formula deduced by Schalm et al., (1975) and Jain (1986) as shown below:
MCV   =                     PCV   x   10
                        RBC count (M106/mm3)
MCH   =          Hb(gldl)  x  10
                        RBC  (m106/mm3)
MCHC=      Hb(gldl) x 100
                       PCV%
SERUM BIOCHEMISTRY:
2 mls of blood samples for serum biochemical was collected and put in a vial bottle without an anticoagulant. The serum protein, albumin, globulin and urea were analyzed using sigma kits according to Igene and Oboh. (2004).

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
All the data collected was subjected to one –way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (Steel and Torrie, 1978). Significant difference between treatment means were separated using the New Duncan Multiple Range Test as outlined by Obi (2002).
EXPERIMENTAL MODEL
The experimental model that was adopted is the linear additive model for completely randomized design experiment which is given as follows:
Xij       =            + ti +ij
Where
Xij       =          Individual observation taken
        =          The population or overall mean
ti          =          Treatment effect
ij      =          Experimental error or residual
i           =          Number of treatment
j           =          Number of replicate

CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Table 1: Growth performance of broiler chickens fed rosemary and thyme extracts.
Parameters
T1
T2
T3
T4
SEM
Initial body weight(g)
754.96
745.98
753.85
755.73
6.75
Final body weight(g)
2062.65
2020.20
1990.22
2112.43
79.7
Body weight gain(g)
1294.36
1281.75
1236.37
1356.64
143.7
Daily body weight(g)
46.70
45.77
44.10
48.45
4.66
Total feed intake(g)
3444
3376.17
3052.17
3417.5
5.30
Daily feed intake(g)
123.00
120.58
118.01
122.05
3.27
Total water intake(g)
3235.82
2891.22
2424.05
2774.52
5.18
Daily water(g)
115.57
103.26
86.57
99.09
17.3
Feed conversion ratio(g)
2.67
2.70
2.46
2.52
0.17
Daily protein intake(g)
25.83
25.32
22.89
25.63
2.05
Protein efficiency ratio (g)
0.56
0.56
0.52
0.53
0.03

Thyme, rosemary and their mixtures supplementation did not significantly (p>0.05) influence the final body weight, body weight gain, total water intake, daily water intake, daily body weight total feed intake, daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio, daily protein intake and protein efficiency ratio of the birds.
            This observation agrees with the result of Tekeli et al (2006), who reported that thyme has no influence (p>0.05) on broilers performance. There was a numerical increase in weight of birds fed rosemary and thyme mixtures supplementation.
            There was no significant (p>0.05) difference in feed intake of the birds supplemented with this treatments, this in agreement with the findings of Schulte et al. (1993) and Jansman et al. (1999).
            Feed conversion and protein efficiency ratios were not affected by the treatments of thyme, rosemary and their mixtures during the experimental period. This agrees with findings of Engberg et al. (2000) and Van Campenhout et al. (2001).
Table 2:         The Effect of Rosemary and Thyme Extracts on the Haematological Characteristics of Broiler Finisher.
Parameters
T1
T2
T3
T4
SEM
Red Blood cell
4.20
4.50
4.80
5.00
1.04
Haemoglobin cell
8.00
8.70
8.70
9.00
1.22
Packed cell volume%
24.00
2.6.00
26.00
23.00
1.60
White blood cell
8.00
7.20
7.20
4.00
1.17
Means cell Haemoglobin
18.57b
28.54b
16.94c
22.59b
1.53
Mean cell volume
57.84c
73.33b
64.03b
59.17b
2.01
Mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration
31.75
33.75
35.33
35.03
1.72
A,b,c. means with different superscripts on the same row differ significantly(p<0.05).
            The red blood cell (RBC) and haemoglobin concentration count did not differ significantly. However, there was marginal increase in RBC count and haemoglobin concentration among the treated groups. It indicates that thyme and rosemary extracts slightly favoured the production of RBC and Hb in chickens (Rahinni et al., 2011 and Alabi et al., 2011).
            The Packed Cell Volume (PCV) and white blood cells also show no significant different (p>0.05). This indicates that no pathological effect was induced by the extracts and hence the health status of the birds was okay (Houghton et al., 1995).
            Mean cell haemoglobin and mean Cell volume significantly differ (p<0.05) among the treatment groups. However, their values were still within the normal range as suggested by Mistruka and Rawnsley (1977)
These constants were being used to describe the characteristics of individual RBC in terms of size, shape and hemoglobin content(Alabi et al.,2011)

Table 3: Effect of rosemary and thyme extract on the Serum Biochemistry parameters of broiler chickens finishers
Parameters
T1
T2
T3
T4
SEM
Urea
42
40
38
40
1.79
Protein
8.0
8.0
8.3
40
1.79
Albumin
5.1
5.0
4.8
4.6
1.06
Globulin
2.8
3.0
3.1
3.4
0.94

            There was no significant (P>0.05) difference in the serum protein, urea, albumin and globulin. This non significant difference may be attributed to the similar composition of the diets. Similar observation have been reported by Ibrahim et al.(2000).
Table 4:  Effect of thyme and rosemary extracts on carcass
     characteristics of broiler finishers.
Parameters
T1
T2
T3
T4
SEM
Dressed weight
1.55
1.40
1.35
1.65
0.69
Liver weight
3.116
2.199
3.050
3.053
0.92
Wing
9.61
11.02
11.35
11.71
1.29
Thing
10.71
14.67
14.88
13.37
1.36
Back cut
13.13
11.90
11.86
14.31
1.34
Neck
3.581
3.783
3.487
2.873
0.97
Drumstick
3.017
2.713
2.967
2.867
0.93
Head
3.3787
3.3333
3.3730
3.5083
0.97
Heart
1.30
1.13
1.03
1.15
0.74
Gizzard
3.745
3.772
3.620
3.815
0.99
Cloaca
2.127
2.023
2.167
2.303
0.86
Intestine
7.887
8.69
7.857
7.723
1.20

There was no significant (P>0.05) difference in liver, wing, thigh, back cut, neck, drumstick, head, gizzard, cloaca, intestine and heart of broiler chicken fed rosemary and thyme extracts compared to the control group. These finding was in agreement with the results of Ocak et al. (2008) who reported no difference in carcass of broiler fed spices as feed additives. The effects of the supplements on relative weights of internal organs showed that the relative weight of the heart, liver, gizzard, were not affected by the dietary treatment. This is in agreement with the findings of Hashish et al. (1995). This observation implies that the treatments had no adverse effect on the carcass characteristics of the birds.

CHAPTER FIVE
5.0                                                  CONCLUSION
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and rosemary (Rose-marinus officianalis) are natural products. Their potentials as feed additives in poultry nutrition has not been properly. The result from this study has shown that its use in broiler finisher diets has no detrimental effects on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, haematological and serum biochemistry of the birds.

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