Performance Assessment of Broiler Chickens Supplemented with Copaiba Oil-Resin

The aim of this research was to evaluate the use of Copaiba oil-resin, known for its medicinal properties on broiler performance from 1 to 42 days old. It had been also evaluated the carcass yield, cuts yield and relative weight of internal organs of males at 42 days old. Three hundred ninety-six, 1-day-old broiler chickens were housed and distributed in a completely randomized design, consisting of three treatments and six replicates of 22 birds each (11 males and 11 females). Treatments: Control - diet without additive, Antibiotic – diet with 10 ppm virginiamycin, Copaiba – diet with 200 ppm Copaiba oil-resin. Broilers treated with Copaiba oil-resin showed similar body weight (2325.17 g) to the control treatment (2279.36 g). The antibiotic treatment provided significantly higher body weight (2414.29 g), body weight gain (2364.14 g) and feed intake (4052.16 g). No differences in carcass yield, relative weight of the spleen and heart were observed. The antibiotic showed higher breast yield (37.72%) in broilers, and higher thigh + drumstick yield (28.01%) was observed in the control treatment. The inclusion of Copaiba oil-resin resulted in lower relative liver weight (2.12%). No significant differences in mortality and productive efficiency index between treatments were observed. The result of the present study showed that the inclusion of 200 ppm Copaiba oil-resin in the diet of broilers apart of liver weight, had no effect to variables studied, however, more studies are needed to better comprehend the influence of this phytogenic on the diet of broilers.