Effects of Different Levels of Dried Lemon (Citrus aurantifulia) Pulp on Performance, Carcass Traits, Blood Biochemical and Immunity Parameters of Broilers

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of dried lemon pulp (DLP) on performance, carcass traits, blood biochemical and immunity parameters of broilers. In this experiment 240 of broilers (Ross-308) were used in a completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 3 replicates (with 20 birds in each replicate) from 1 to 42 days. Experimental diets included: 1) control group with no DLP, in 2 until 4 treatments the levels of DLP were 0, 1.5, 3 and 4.5 percent. Inclusion different levels of dried lemon pulp on broilers diets had significant effects on their performance, carcass traits and blood bio-chemical parameters (P > 0.05). Adding DLP into broiler diets significantly increased the amount of feed intake in starter, grower and whole experiment periods. Also it significantly increased the amount of daily weight gain in starter and whole experiment periods; however they were not observed any significant dif-ference between treatments in daily weight gain in grower period. As the rate of feed intake to daily weight gain was high, especially in grower period in treatments, which contained DLP, it had adverse effect on feed conversion and led to be increased, in contrast with control group. There were no significant differ-ences between experimental groups regarding to feed conversion in starter period (P > 0.05). Using 3% DLP significantly decreased the abdominal fat and blood low density lipoprotein (LDL), whereas the lowest per-cent of gizzard was obtained by inclusion 1.5% DLP. Adding different levels of dried lemon pulp could not significantly affect the hematological parameters of broilers. According to these experimental results, using DLP up to 4.5% of broiler diets in starter period, would be possible without any adverse effects on their performance, however these levels in grower period increased significantly the ratio of daily feed intake to daily weight gain and had adverse effect on feed conversion. Moreover 1.5% DLP had desirable effects on reduce of abdominal fat and blood low density lipoproteins.