| Summary: | This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation with <i>Spirulina platensis</i> (SP) on the productive performance, carcass characteristics, behavior, blood serum metabolites, hematological indices, and economic efficiency of Fayoumi broiler chickens for a 56-day. In total, 120 one-day-old broiler chicks were randomly distributed among four dietary treatments with three replicates (n = 10/group) for 8 weeks. The dietary treatments were a control basal diet without SP and the same basal diets supplemented with 0.25, 0.5, or 1.0% SP. Birds fed 1% <i>Spirulina</i>-supplemented diets recorded significantly (<i>p</i> < 0.05) higher body weight, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio and less overall feed intake and feeding behavior than those in the control group. No significant changes (<i>p</i> > 0.05) were recorded in the dressing percentage or the relative weights of internal organs among the different experimental groups, except for the thymus. Diets containing 0.5 or 1.0% SP saw an increase (<i>p</i> < 0.05) in serum total protein and globulin and a reduction (<i>p</i> < 0.05) in serum cholesterol concentration. The lymphocyte percentage in birds fed SP diets was significantly (<i>p</i> < 0.05) higher than in birds fed the control diet. These results suggest that adding SP up to 1% to the broiler diets could positively affect some important blood biochemical parameters, enhance their immunity response, and improve their growth performance. However, from an economic point of view, supplementation with 0.25% of SP is recommended for Fayoumi broiler chickens.
|
|---|