Effects of Dietary Supplementation with Pumpkin oil (Cucurbita pepo) on Performance and Blood Fat of Broiler Chickens during Finisher Period

Problem statement: Using most of antibiotic growth promoters as feed additives has been banned by the European Union due to cross-resistance against pathogens and residues in tissues; and scientists search for alternatives to antibiotics, two days. In this view, medicinal plants and essential oils extracted are becoming more important due to their antimicrobial and stimulating effects on animal digestive systems. Approach: This study was conducted to evaluate the use of Pumpkin oil in broiler nutrition as a natural growth promoting substance and its effect on abdominal and blood fat. A total of 144 one-day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were used in a completely randomized design with 3 treatments and 3 replicates. The experiment was conducted from 29-49 d of age. The main ingredients of diets included corn, soybean meal and wheat. The pumpkin oil levels added to the diets were 0.00 (control), 5.00 and 10.00 g kg⁻¹ DM. Results: Pumpkin oil supplementation up to 5.00 g kg⁻¹ DM diet had not significant effect on broilers performance, but supplementation in higher level (10.00 g kg⁻¹ DM) significantly decreased broilers performance. Pumpkin oil supplementation decreased bird’s mortality. Adding pumpkin oil had not any significant effect on abdominal fat pad and carcass composition, however cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations in plasma decreased at 49 days of age (P<0.05). Conclusion: Results of this study indicated that supplementation of diets with 5.00 g kg⁻¹ DM pumpkin oil in corn-soybean meal-wheat based diet can be profitable because it reduced broiler chicken’s mortality and it did not have any adverse effect on bird’s performance.