Effect of compound Chinese herbal medicine on growth performance, immune performance and antibody level of Hetian black chickens.

The experiment was to investigate the effect of compound Chinese herbal medicine on growth performance, immune performance and antibody level of Hetian black chickens. A total of 350 35-day-old Hetian black chickens were randomly divided into five groups with five replicates in each group and 14 chickens in each replicate. The chickens in group I were fed with a basal diet, the chickens in group II were fed with a basal diet adding 0.1% aureomycin, chickens in group III, group IV and group V were fed with a basal diet supplemented with 0.1%, 0.5% and 1.0% compound Chinese herbal medicine, respectively. The test period was 77 d. The results showed that thymus index, spleen index and bursa of fabricius index of chickens in group III, group IV and group V were significantly higher than those in group I (P<0.05). The content of IgA, IgG and IgM in serum of chickens in group III, group IV and group V were extremely higher than those in group I ( P<0.01), and the content of IgA was extremely higher than that in group II (P<0.01). The content of IgG in group V was significantly higher than that in group II (P<0.05), and the content of IgM in group IV and group V was extremely higher than that in group II (P<0.01). The titer of ND antibody of NDV of chickens in group III, group IV and group V was extremely higher than that in group I (P<0.01). The titer of IB antibody of chickens in group III, group IV and group V was significantly higher than that in group I (P<0.05). The experiment indicates that adding compound Chinese herbal medicine in diet of Hetian black chickens can increase the content of serum IgA, IgM and IgG, increase thymus index, spleen index and bursa index, and increase Nd antibody titer of Newcastle disease and IB antibody titer of chicken infectious bronchitis. The effect of adding 0.5% compound Chinese herbal medicine is the most suitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]