STM Article Repository

Aims: To find the effect of basil and thyme (medicinal plants) and some enzymes (kemzyme and
zymogen) as feed additives on some productive performance, some metabolic parameters, integrity
and functionality of gastrointestinal tract.
Study Design: Forty - eight male turkey toms (strain, Big 6), 3 months old were used with an average
body weight 5.5 kg. All turkeys were apparently active and healthy. The turkey toms were raised on
floor covered with dry wood shaving, which was used in all partition, its thickness is about 10-15 cm
and renewed every 3 days till the end of the experiment. The house was divided into 8 partitions, each
partition was (240 cm X 180 cm) providing enough surface area for each turkey. In each partition
there were plastic feeders and drinkers of 20 L capacity, it was provided with identifying card to record
all required information. Food and water were available ad-libitum through the period of experiment.
The house was well ventilated by natural windows. Light was turned off (one hour in 24 hours) as
recommended by [1]. Turkey was kept under hygienic condition and as far as possible from any
discomfort stimuli. Feeding Regimen; Basal ration were formulated to cover the nutrient
requirements of growing turkey according to National Research Center [2]. Toms were randomly
divided into eight groups (6 toms/each). The control group (C) was fed a basal diet without feed
supplementation. Group(B) was supplemented with basil (3 g basil/kg diet) group (T) was fed thyme
(2 g thyme/kg diet), group (TB) was fed a mixture of basil and thyme (3 g basil + 2 g thyme kg diet),
group (Z) was fed zymogen (1 ml/4 liter water); and group (K) was supplemented with kemzyme (0.5
g/kg diet), group (BTK) was fed a mixture of basil, thyme and kemzyme, the last group was fed with
diet supplemented with basil, thyme and zymogen (BTZ).
Place and Duration of Study: The present study was carried out in animal care center, faculty of
veterinary medicine, Cairo University. During the period from March till May 2015. The experiment
lasted for 10 weeks.
Methodology: Body weight gain, feed conversion ratio was measured at the end of 10th week of
experiment. Blood samples were taken to measure some biochemical & hormonal parameters, at the
same time some tissues for morphological and molecular studies were prepared. Tissue samples
were taken from duodenum. They were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain for measuring
the length of villi and the depth of crypts using A computerized microscopic image analyzer attached
for full HD microscopic camera (Leica Microsystems, Germany was used to determine the
histomorphometry parameters [3]. The other part of the collected tissues was prepared as
homogenate for total DNA& RNA purification according to [4] using the QIAamp Mini Kit.