The aim of this research was to evaluate the effects of the increase levels of antibiotics associated with the Brazilian red pepper meal (BRPM) on liver function and performance of broilers. A total of 528 day-old male chicks, Cobb, distributed in a randomized design of six treatments and four replicates of 22 birds each: T1: Negative Control (NC): basal diet; T2: Positive Control (PC): basal diet with 1,2% BRPM; T3: PC+11ppm zinc bacitracin and 17ppm salinomycin, T4: PC + 22ppm zinc bacitracin and 34ppm salinomycin; T5: PC+33ppm zinc bacitracin and 51ppm salinomycin; T6: PC+45ppm zinc bacitracin and 67ppm salinomycin. BRPM contains tannins thus its use in animal feed needs to evaluate by liver function and animal performance. The dosage of the enzymes ALT (alanine aminotransferase), AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and GGT (gamma glutamyltransferase) is a tool in the diagnosis of liver damage. For this, were randomly collected blood samples from 10 animals per treatment between 21 and 41 days age. At 21 days of age it was observed elevated values of AST and decreased of ALT in broilers fed diet BRPM associated with higher levels of antibiotics compared to the others (P<0.05). However, it was observed that the serum concentrations of AST, ALT and GGT in broiler chickens fed diet with 1.2% of BRPM did not differ from NC at 21 and 41 days (P>0.05). There was no effect (P>0.05) of treatments on broilers weight and relative liver weight at 43 days of age. The supplementation of Brazilian red pepper with or without antibiotics improved feed conversion at 43 days of age. It was concluded that the inclusion of 1.2% BRPM did not affect liver function but the addition of high levels of antibiotics associated with the BRPM resulted in alteration of hepatic enzymes.
Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi; Brazilian red pepper; hepatic enzymes; antibiotics; broilers
